Joint Statement of the malERA Leadership Council on Supplement in PLoS Medicine
We’re delighted to feature on our blog a joint statement from members of the malERA Leadership Council, voicing their support for publication of the malERA collection in PLoS Medicine.
Joint Statement of the malERA Leadership Council on the Malaria Eradication Research and Development Agenda Published in PLoS Medicine
We welcome the publication of a new multidisciplinary research and development agenda for eradicating malaria, a goal that is unachievable without a new generation of tools and strategies. We were pleased to be active participants in the preparation of this new agenda, which resulted from a two-year consultative process involving more than 250 scientists convened by the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (malERA) initiative.
MalERA has identified important knowledge gaps that must be addressed and new interventions that will be needed to achieve a key goal of public health and development communities: the interruption of malaria transmission worldwide. In recent years we have seen an increased fiscal and political commitment to malaria control that has resulted in a rapid scale-up of proven malaria control interventions and a consequent reduction in both the number of malaria cases and deaths. This progress provides encouraging evidence that with currently available tools malaria can be better controlled — and even eliminated– in some countries and regions. However, a broad consensus also exists that new tools focused specifically on the interruption of transmission need to be developed if malaria eradication is to be eventually achieved.
As members of the malERA initiative Leadership Council, we hope that the publication of this research and development agenda encourages those involved in malaria research, especially scientists in malaria-endemic countries, to undertake new and challenging projects driven by the ultimate goal of global malaria eradication. The dream of definitively ending this longstanding scourge of humanity is within reach, but demands our best collective efforts as well as a robust and sustained commitment.
Margaret Chan , World Health Organization, Geneva (Switzerland)
Mark Walport, The Wellcome Trust, London (UK)
Awa Coll-Seck Roll Back Malaria Partnership,Geneva, (Switzerland)
Tadataka Yamada, Global Health Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle (USA)
Anthony S. Fauci, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda (USA)