topnaman | Malaria blog

About a year and a half ago I briefly discussed a WHO report (see comments here) claiming the success of scale-up of malaria control interventions. Now a group of CDC/ex-CDC scientists have published a superb commentary (Malaria Journal – open access) on the same evaluation and on using facility-based data more broadly (hat tip: Matt [...]

The Roll Back Malaria (RBM) coalition’s Global Malaria Action Plan was released against the backdrop of the world’s mover and shakers at the recent UN meeting. The Plan calls for a worldwide scale-up of key interventions with the goal of saving 4.2 million lives by 2015 and several other milestones beyond that date. Additionally, the [...]

About one month ago an interesting (and quite bold) article appeared in the British Medical Journal without much fanfare. Three faculty of the Swiss Tropical Institute wrote about why we should pursue a strategy of universal coverage with key interventions rather than an elimination plan. One name on the paper stood out to me – [...]

My friend Atanu Dey at Deeshaa.org often speaks of the fallacy of implementing technological solutions to overcome fundamentally non-technological problems. While Atanu usually invokes this paradigm in reference to India’s primary education challenge, I believe the same concept is relevant to public health efforts. Many public health problems today are non-technological, i.e. we have effective [...]

An estimated 250 million nets at $10 a piece are needed to achieve the current UN goal of 80% coverage in high risk groups – pregnant women and children under five. UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon has raised the bar calling for universal coverage with nets by 2010 as part of his plan to [...]

When Melinda Gates ushered the eradication word at a meeting last October, she certainly took the malaria community by surprise. The New York Times examines the reaction to the Gates Foundation’s goal in which responses to eradication have ranged from “audacious” to “foolhardy”. Given the history of malaria eradication, many are skeptical. The previous attempt [...]

My goal for the blog is to achieve one post every day. Clearly, I’ve missed that mark, blogging while traveling is a trick which might take me some time to master. Until then, my apologies for any lapses in news and comments.
Last week Nature carried a commentary from Mark Grabowsky, malaria manager at the Global [...]

Recently, we discussed President Bush’s legacy in Africa and his efforts to tackle HIV/AIDs and malaria (see my previous post here). In the midst of his Africa tour, Bush added another feather to his cap announcing a new plan to tackle neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). For 2008, NTD aid is set at $15 million targeting [...]

President Bush is on a five country tour through Africa visiting Benin, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ghana, and Liberia. According to the news, the president has been well-received with large crowds following him in the hopes to glimpse a man they see as a strong supporter. Under the current administration, aid to these countries is [...]

The NY Times covered some controversy surrounding the expanding influence of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The complaints highlighted by WHO malaria director, Arata Kochi, were two-fold: the risk posed to independent review and diverse viewpoints amongst researchers, and the unwelcome intrusion of the Gates Foundation in the policy-making process.
I think the real questions [...]