A curable disease

Malaria is a curable disease if recognised, diagnosed and treated promptly and correctly. In recent years one of the greatest challenges in the fight against malaria is resistance to the cheapest and previously most widely used antimalarial drug – chloroquine – which is common around the world. New artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) now provide a highly effective alternative medicine to treat malaria and can slow resistance. However, the price of an adult dose of ACT is around US$ 1-3 - 10-20 times that of previously used antimalarials.  Strategies to ensure all those suffering from malaria are treated properly and before the disease becomes severe are essential and feasible.  They need patient education, trained health workers and affordable drugs (ACTs) as close to home as possible.

There is currently no malaria vaccine approved for human use, although many scientists around the world are working on developing an effective vaccine. The malaria parasite is a complex organism and scientists do not yet totally understand the immune responses that protect humans against malaria.  However, while work on the malaria vaccine continues there are effective prevention and treatment tools available for use today with long term, predictable financing and political will are in place to sustain them.