Published 19 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a869
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a869

Analysis

Tackling malaria today

Jo Lines, reader in vector control and malaria biology1, Allan Schapira, senior researcher2, Tom Smith, professor of epidemiology2

1 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, 2 Swiss Tropical Institute, 4051 Basel, Switzerland

Correspondence to: J Lines jo.lines@lshtm.ac.uk

In most countries where malaria is endemic, elimination is still not feasible, and the best strategy is steady progress towards universal coverage with key interventions

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Once again, after an interval of 40 years, local elimination and global eradication of malaria (see box for definitions) is a focus of international health.1 In 2007, the African Union called for elimination of malaria from the continent,2 and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation challenged partners to adopt the goal of eradication.3 In this article, we draw on lessons from the first global malaria eradication campaign to argue that in most countries, time limited elimination remains unfeasible with existing tools, and we argue that for these countries it is better to consider how to achieve sustained progress in reducing the burden of malaria.


Control—Reduction of disease incidence, prevalence, morbidity, or mortality to a locally acceptable level as a result of deliberate efforts. Continued intervention measures are required to maintain the reduction
Elimination of disease*—Reduction to zero of the incidence of a specified disease in a defined geographical . . . [Full text of this article]



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