Dear Colleague, As your organization is active in regions of the world affected by malaria, I thought I would write to you, in my capacity as president of the Malaria Foundation International, to let you know of an important development in the battle against the disease. Malaria was on the agenda of the meeting of the heads of state of the G8 countries being held in Birmingham, United Kingdom on the week-end. They have strongly endorsed the programme. The promise of high level political support, and the ambitiousness of the planned new programme, are the culmination of growing international recognition of the gravity and deterioration of the malaria situation, in particular in Africa. We are perhaps standing at what is an historic watershed in efforts to combat the disease, and any support from your organization would be most welcome.
Malaria already kills over one million people every year.
Another 300 to 500 million people have the disease, and one third of all humanity lives in zones where they risk catching it. Yet malaria control efforts suffer from a lack of co-ordinated investment and implementation. Spending on cancer research in the United Kingdom alone is double that spent on malaria research worldwide. Moreover, just as the explosion of parasite resistance to drugs makes it more pressing than ever to find new drugs and vaccines, the pharmaceutical industry worldwide has been reducing its support, but it is hoped that this trend will reverse. It was to draw attention to these problems, and to help remedy them, that the Malaria Foundation International itself was set up in 1992.