Global malaria burden and achieving universal coverage of interventions: a glimpse on progress and impact
Malaria continues to remain a serious public health problem in many tropical and sub-tropical countries of the World with around 225 million cases and near one million deaths every year causing serious economic and man-day losses, and trapping countries in the vicious cycle of ill health and poverty. With early success of Global Malaria Eradication Programme of 1950–60s, malaria resurged back in 1970s due to drug and insecticide resistance and other operational constraints leading to change and re-organization of control programmes, which helped in bringing the situation under control. With re-energized efforts of global community and implementation of Roll Back Malaria Program of WHO in 1998, malaria got global recognition and many more initiatives were launched which have helped in increasing the funding for malaria control and implementation of key interventions such as insecticide treated nets, indoor residual spray, artemisinin-based combination therapy, etc. in many endemic countries and they have shown promising results as indicated by the decline in the number of malaria positive cases and number of deaths all over the globe as reported in World Malaria Report (2010). However, the challenge lies in new emerging problems such as insecticide and drug resistance, new strains, climate change-related factors and achieving the universal coverage of interventions. The momentum gained is needed to be sustained to achieve the final success.