News

WHO and Margaret Chan: the next 5 years

None | 14 Jan 2024 | The Lancet

WHO is in the process of appointing a Director-General whose tenure will run from June, 2012, to June, 2017. Margaret Chan, the current incumbent, is the only candidate standing. WHO's Executive Board will consider her appointment when they meet later this month, and the World Health Assembly will ratify the Board's decision in May.

WHO misses malaria goal, but still aims for 'near zero' deaths by end of 2015

Maria Cheng | 13 Dec 2023 | Associated Press

Health officials hope to virtually eliminate malaria deaths in the next few years — despite having failed to meet an earlier goal of cutting the disease's incidence in half by 2010. In a report released Tuesday by the World Health Organization, experts said they only managed to reduce malaria by 17 per cent since 2000.

WHO reports progress in malaria control

Roger Collier | 17 Dec 2023 | Canadian Medical Association Journal

While international funding to fight malaria has more than doubled in the past three years, producing positive results, much more money is needed, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Malaria cases likely half in third of countries

Maria Cheng | 15 Dec 2023 | Associated Press

Malaria cases appear to have been slashed by half in more than a third of countries battling the disease following a renewed push by the United Nations to eradicate it, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

Revisions Sharply Cut Estimates on Malaria

Donald G. McNeil Jr. | 22 Sep 2023 | New York Times

The world has many fewer cases of malaria than previously thought, the World Health Organization is reporting. But the agency says the apparent drop is not a result of mosquito nets, miracle drugs and DDT spraying — just better statistical techniques. The war on the disease still needs to be prosecuted with vigor, the health organization said last week, because malaria is as bad as ever in its rural African epicenter. And although experts agree that the new estimates are probably closer to the truth, they are still not very accurate.

Counting bites

None | 18 Sep 2023 | Economist

At first blush, the change seems like staggeringly good news. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has just issued a new report on malaria. The agency's experts estimate that each year there are some 250m cases of malaria globally. That is a huge fall from the previous 350m-500m figure in a 2005 report.

Malaria eradication back on the table

Don de Savigny Marcel Tanner | 01 Feb 2024 | World Health Organization

After a lapse of almost 40 years, malaria eradication is back on the global health agenda. Inspired by the Gates Malaria Forum in October 2007, key organizations are starting to debate the pros and cons of redefining eradication as an explicit goal of malaria control efforts.

Sluggish approvals blocking Africans' access to bed nets

Emma Marris | 01 Jun 2023 | Nature Medicine

Best known for supporting the indoor spraying of the controversial pesticide DDT, AFM on 23 April released a report on the WHO's Pesticide Evaluation Scheme (WHOPES).  Because many governments and donor groups only buy WHOPES-recommended nets, the lengthy process of evaluation is stifling competition and handicapping the fight against malaria, says Philip Coticelli, AFM's research and communications manager.

Pro-malaria forces resurface at WHO

Paul Driessen | 16 May 2023 | WebCommentary.com

Last year WHO's malaria director, Dr, Arata Kochi, reversed 25 years of WHO policy and put DDT back into its arsenal of anti-malaria weapons. He did this because he had studied the evidence and concluded that DDT was safe for humans and the environment when used for IRS.

Nature Medicine Yearbook 2006

Staff Writers | 22 Dec 2023 | Nature Medicine

Nature gives Arata Kochi, head of the World Health Organization's Malaria Control Program, the distinction of Most Outspoken person in 2006.