Rolling back malaria.

Despite the launching of many efforts against malaria over the past decade, the disease remains problematic. In some places the disease is getting worse, and in others it is being held in check, but nowhere are the incidence and prevalence of malaria being reduced. This failure to reduce the burden of malaria is due to the lack of coordination of international assistance to countries for control efforts, failure to deliver and implement malaria control tools due to weak health systems in malaria-endemic countries, inadequate funding, and technical reasons such as drug and insecticide resistance. The World Health Organization's (WHO) Roll Back Malaria (RBM) project is addressing all of these issues. The RBM aims to coordinate global action to fight malaria and help governments reach their own targets to combat the disease in their countries. To help countries and monitor all interventions, RBM will depend upon resource networks, each concerned with a specific issue and linking experts in research and academic institutions with district health teams and disease control institutions in endemic countries. Already functioning for 6 months, the RBM's first priority was Africa. The RBM is now expanding to other regions, and preparations are being made in the WHO regional offices for southeast Asia and the western Pacific.