The Fight Against Malaria

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/opinion/malaria-funding.html

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To the Editor:

Re “In a Rare Success, Paraguay Conquers Malaria” (Science Times, July 10): The world is at a tipping point in the fight against malaria. This moment is an opportunity to push progress forward rather than risk the dangers of backsliding.

Take India as a cautionary tale: When malaria funding was withdrawn in the mid-1960s, the resulting shortage of supplies to spray against mosquitoes led to a resurgence of malaria cases. Sustained funding, coupled with advances in technology and research, provide opportunities to end malaria for good.

Financing the fight against malaria also produces economic returns. Malaria-free countries have five times greater economic growth than countries with malaria.

But no country can undertake the ambitious goal of ending malaria alone. Global partnerships among donors, local governments and the private sector are critical to freeing communities from malaria.

Thankfully, Congress has continued to demonstrate bipartisan leadership, with both the House and the Senate appropriations committees sustaining funding for the President’s Malaria Initiative, as well as the Global Fund, an agency based in Geneva financing AIDS, TB and malaria responses.

This strong American leadership will prevent millions of malaria infections, and can stop disease resurgence and save lives.

CHRIS COLLINS, WASHINGTON

The writer is president of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an independent American nonprofit.