Gates Foundation and the United Nations recently released a report titled “Aspiration to Action” suggesting that with appropriate investments of time, effort and money, the world could eradicate Malaria by 2040.
The report was signed by Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Gates Foundation and Ray Chambers, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals and for Malaria.
The report read “Progress in combatting Malaria over the past 15 years represents one of the greatest success stories in the history of public health.
“The number of children who die from the disease has fallen by more than 50 percent, and the United Nations estimates that 6.2 million lives have been saved by malaria interventions between 2000 and 2015.
“Yet, as many as one billion people are infected with the malaria parasite and nearly 500,000 children still die from this preventable disease each year – the equivalent of one child every minute.”
The report recommended that “We must sustain momentum from the past 15 years by reducing malaria cases and deaths to the lowest possible levels during these first five years, setting the stage for elimination in many countries.”