Malaria resurges when complacency over control sets in or funding collapses, study concludes

Progress in eradicating malaria is jeopardised if programmes to combat the disease are cut, a study has concluded.

The study, published in the Malaria Journal (2012;11:122, doi:10.1186/1475-2875-11-122), looked at 75 documented cases of malaria resurgence worldwide since the 1930s. It found that in 90% of the cases resurgence was linked, in part, to weakening of malaria control programmes.

The researchers—from the Clinton Health Access Initiative; the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute; the independent Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, which is based in Washington, DC, and New Delhi; and the Global Health Group at the University of California, San Francisco—reviewed the literature to find all documented instances of malaria resurgence.

Their study looked at historical events, but its findings …