Close but not close enough

A textile mill in Tanzania that produces long-lasting, insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

I try to keep the figures updated in this class and, in some cases, make sure I'm giving you a good general figure and not one person's estimate. The figures on the costs of malaria eradication would be a good example. As someone pointed out we also need to know the TOTAL worldwide expenditure on malaria control not just the US contribution. I usually just double the US contribution but it looks like 2.5x would be a better figure. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - who I trust to have a pretty good handle on the figures - estimate total worldwide expenditure on malaria control to now be $2 billion per year. This is an impressive increase but still well short of the $5 billion estimated to be required for eradication. The malaria page at the Gates foundation website is well worth a read.

In the past decade, funding for malaria control risen from US$300 million in 2003 to an estimated US$2 billion in 2011. This massive increase was made possible by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and commitments from the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative, the UK Department for International Development, UNITAID, the World Bank, and other bilateral and multilateral agencies.

Still, the Global Malaria Action Plan estimates that an additional US$5 billion in annual funding is needed to achieve and sustain universal coverage and pursue research and development. Our strategy includes investments to encourage continued funding commitments by current major donors, mobilize new donors for malaria R&D, and support efforts to track country-level progress against malaria.