The countdown to 2010 has begun

The main challenge will therefore be organizational rather than conceptual or scientific.In view of the lives to be saved and the economic benefits of reining in the disease, the total cost of around $3 billion a year is one of the world’s great bargains.

In a dramatic call to action in April, United Nations secretary general Ban Ki moon backed by the African Union, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation, ExxonMobil, the World Bank, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, among other key international organizations and businesses set a timetable for comprehensive malaria control in Africa by the end of 2010. Secretary General Ban has thrown down the gauntlet there is no reason why a million or more children should die every year of a largely preventable and wholly treatable disease.