Recently, there has been a surge in awareness and action in recognizing the horrible toll malaria has on the developing world. From mainstream advocacy by groups such as 'madness for malaria' and less publicized day-to-day field worker initiatives, the battle to saves lives is taking place every day.In Tanzania, malaria still accounts for the highest all cause mortality among children. Reasons for this are complex. These include cultural, political, biological, and economic.
For example there has been important progress in Zanzibar over the years in combating the disease among children and adults. Yet despite these efforts, success has been more challenging on the mainland. Some of this was due to ineffective policy that had prohibited private sector facilities from procuring preferentially priced pharmaceuticals, creating an undue tiered system that created inequities in access to life saving medicines. Other reasons include resistant strains of the malaria parasite, inadequate distribution of bed nets, and mainstream beliefs that inhibit widespread prophylaxis.
A cautionary tale is while currently there is hundreds of millions of USD invested in the search for a malaria vaccine, it is critical to appreciate that barriers to effective treatment are multi-factorial and no magic bullets exist. New microfluidic diagnostic tools will also allow for large low cost panels to screen children and adults for dozens of infectious diseases, including the malaria parasite, within minutes. But diagnosis must also be accompanied by affordable access to life saving medicines. Even with an effective vaccines and/or diagnostic tools, public health innovation must also be achieved in policy reform that streamlines procurement and distribution practices between both public and private stakeholders for eradication strategies to be effective.
