Malaria is and has always been a great threat all
over the world. According to Australian news, today especially, Australia is
worried about its future with this deadly disease. Roll Back Malaria is a
partnership made by the World Trade Organization to fight against this
impending problem. The partnership studies the effects malaria has/had on areas
outside of its most common home, Africa. A lot of money is being put into the
effort. It will all be very much worth it however because it is estimated that
70,000 lives will potentially be saved by 2015. Mosquito nets, malaria test and
drug treatments are just a few of the things being bought and provided with the
money. Scientists warn of drug resistance which is caused by “wrong treatments,
patients not completing their treatments and the use of sub-standard and
counterfeit drugs”. If a lot of drug resistant malaria reached Africa from
Asia, death tolls are predicted to spike at about 25%.
NPR makes a counter argument to the previous article
stating that some drug treatments that are being made available in several
African countries can create more harm than good. It is said that these
programs put drugs into the hand of incompetent people who can damage
themselves or over treat the disease. At the Clinton Health Access Initiative, researchers
have discovered that pharmacies are aiding in the over treatment problem. People
how walk in and complain of just a head ache can be handed the drug treatment
for malaria without being tested for the parasite first. This tell us that a
lot of money spent in making the drug available has been wasted and that many
illnesses that are not malaria are being improperly treated. As we can see from
these two articles, a lot is still to be done with the issue of malaria and its
plan for treatment. It does not seem enough to simply raise money for drug
treatment and to send it off to countries in need. That is only half the
battle. We still need the other half of proper patient care and drug
administration.
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