Although malaria has been controlled in many local and regional populations, the permanent elimination of malaria parasites throughout the world remains an elusive goal, and the disease continues to claim nearly one million lives each year. In 2007, Bill and Melinda Gates called for a renewed effort to eradicate malaria worldwide. Some skeptics have questioned the feasibility of doing so because of failed attempts to eradicate malaria in the 20th century. In a new commentary, National Institutes of Health scientists B. Fenton Hall, M.D., Ph.D., and Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), discuss the lessons learned from past attempts to eradicate malaria and identify key challenges to achieving success today. The renewed effort to eradicate malaria will require a long-term commitment that incorporates multiple activities, interventions and approaches, they assert. As success in controlling malaria is achieved, the behavior and distribution of malaria parasites and the mosquitoes that spread them are likely to change. Scientists must be prepared to anticipate these changes and alter their strategies to keep ahead of them by developing a robust pipeline of new tools and interventions. The authors note that such a pipeline will require a sustained research effort, as NIAID recently outlined in the Strategic Plan for Malaria Research and the NIAID Malaria Research Agenda. NIAID is the lead U.S. government agency that supports basic biomedical and clinical research in malaria.
Link