Published 20 May 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1971
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1971

Letters

Combating malaria

Try public health measures in Africa too

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

The director of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria says: "There is no reason any child should die from malaria anymore" because we have "impregnated bed nets" and "effective drugs to treat those who fall ill."¹

Not a word about environmental hygiene or public health, which curtailed malaria considerably not only in the colonial days of the Gold Coast/Ghana but also in present day Singapore, Cuba, and Trinidad with the same hot and humid climate.² In equally hot and humid Orlando, Florida, goldfish are farmed in vast areas of standing water to devour mosquito larvae—hence no malaria.

Has frenetic malarial therapeutics with apparent exclusion of public health as practised in politically disciplined Singapore, Florida, Cuba, and Trinidad more to do with the interests of the pharmaceutical companies than with the health of the natives?³

As I wrote on millennium development goals: "The West will only give you tablets . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ University of Cape Coast, Ghana

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