Views and reflections on anti-malaria programmes in the world.
The certification of achieved malaria eradication from Taiwan in 1965, and the maintenance of malaria-free status of the country for 25 years, do prove the soundness of the malaria eradication adopted in 1955 by the World Health Assembly, but only when this policy is well understood and well implemented. Certain unique features of Taiwan eradication programme that ultimately lead to its success are cited. The worsening of the malaria situation in the world, and the dismantling of the vertical malaria structures in many countries were highlighted in an article entitled "Malaria Programme from Euphoria to Anarchy" in the WHO forum of 1980. Since then another decade of indifference to the rising tide of malaria, brought about an alarming situation that elicited the 1989 World Health Assembly's resolution on Malaria Control. The underlying causes of this indifference by governments and international bodies concerned with health and socioeconomic development are presented to apprise governments of malarious countries of certain imperative facts that have to be accepted when seriously considering malaria control schemes in their health plans. The need for training future generations of seasoned malariologists is stressed, as well as the need to develop new curricula comprising the experience gained in this field since the dawn of this century. A stress is made on the importance of promoting research, not only on technical problems but also on the social behaviour of rural communities in relation to the acceptance and participation in malaria control programmes. The role of Tropical Diseases Institutes and Research Centres in promoting basic and practical research in the field of malaria is underlined.
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D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013624:Taiwan; D013997:Time Factors; D014944:World Health Organization