topnaman | Malaria blog

Why are disease burden estimates important? There are two sets of reasons: 1) technical, e.g. national priority setting etc and 2) political economy of health, e.g. advocacy and visibility, donor influence, etc. Thus, estimates are often quite contentious apart from the methodology used. The practical applications of burden estimation are on the other hand limited. [...]

This month’s issue of the Bulletin of the WHO brings a fantastic interview with Dr Newman, director of the organization’s malaria program. A very good line: At the centre of everything you have national malaria control programmes, which are much more sophisticated than 20 years ago.

Dr Jack Chow, a former WHO official with a colorful background including management consulting and investment banking, takes a bird’s eye view of the World Health Organization in Foreign Policy magazine. WHO cannot become complacent (see here) and needs to pursue serious reforms but my agreement with Dr Chow ends there. First, the “product” of [...]

Possibly, but probably not, and certainly too early to tell. Though some would have you believe it already. The World Health Organization press release makes two claims: 1) artemisinin-resistant malaria (previously discussed here and here) has almost disappeared from areas tested in a pilot project managed by WHO and 2) the overall incidence of malaria has reduced significantly [...]

Beyond the glitz and glamour of malaria advocacy on the world stage, there is a cadre of dedicated individuals that is working hard in malaria control everyday. Community volunteers, health services staff, researchers, control managers, and others may not appear in the papers, but their work is the basis for any progress achieved. I think [...]

The latest World Malaria Report has been released by the Global Malaria Program at the World Health Organization. More later.