WEF '08: new push to combat malaria

Leaders including World Bank Group president Robert B. Zoellick, UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman convened in Davos to announce an expanded 36-month effort to achieve scale-up of malaria control across sub-Saharan Africa. Timed with the release of new report at the World Economic Forum claiming 3.5 million lives could be saved over the next five years if malaria prevention and treatment measures were rapidly scaled up in the 30 hardest hit countries in Africa, the accelerated effort will help malaria-endemic countries by combining the best practices of public health with the best ideas from the private sector.

The report, We Can't Afford to Wait: The Business Case for Rapid Scale-up of Malaria Control in Africa, was prepared by Malaria No More and McKinsey & Company on behalf of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM). It details how rapid scale-up would also increase annual economic output by as much as $30 billion in Africa, prevent 672 million malaria cases, and free up 427,000 needed hospital beds over five years.