In little more than a decade, an Asian child in a remote, rural community will fall ill with fever following a mosquito bite. After accurate diagnosis, she will be given effective treatment and make a full recovery. A community health worker will determine there are no other cases. It will be the last case of malaria in Asia Pacific.
This is not a fantasy, but a tangible moment within our grasp.
Over the past 15 years, a massive international donor effort to tackle malaria in the Asia Pacific region has driven greater access to medicines, distribution of bed nets and better screening and diagnosis. These actions halved the burden of the disease, averting over 80 million cases and over 100,000 deaths in our countries.