Financial Times: Time to double down on malaria
Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

“…What will it take to stop this global health menace? We need more innovation and more money. … To defeat an infectious disease like malaria you have to hit it hard — and you have to keep hitting it until it’s gone. … [W]hat will really make a difference is incremental funding from the affected countries themselves. Getting rid of malaria requires sustained investment in health systems and, ultimately, there’s only so much that can be done from outside. The key to sustainable and resilient health systems — and to defeating malaria — is local taxes being invested in people’s health. … [The benefits of doing so] are compelling, hard-nosed economic reasons for ridding the world of malaria. So the global health community must get equally hard-nosed about finding the money. This means talking about tax and budget priorities. … But now we need to double down. As part of the Sustainable Development Goals, world leaders committed to ending malaria by 2030. That goal is achievable, but only if we act decisively — and now” (4/24).