10多年来，防治这种寄生虫病的努力通过投入资金、开展工作及做出承诺拯救了人们的生命。如今，取得上述成效的国际合作伙伴确立了一个更高的目标：到2050年根除疟疾。

2015到2020年总统防治疟疾行动计划战略（President’s Malaria Initiative Strategy 2015–2020）阐明了有关成果及目标。总统防治疟疾行动计划（PMI）由前总统乔治·W·布什（George W. Bush）发起，已成为在防治疟疾的前沿积极努力的组织之一，与防治艾滋病、结核病和疟疾全球基金（Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria）、世界银行防治疟疾强化项目（World Bank Malaria Booster Program）以及比尔和梅琳达·盖茨基金会（Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation）共同努力。

https://share.america.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PMI_africamap_chinese.jpg

这个地图标明了接受总统防治疟疾行动计划提供的援助的国家

为防治每年大约2亿个病例，今后5年争取实现的目标包括将疟疾目前造成的死亡人数（每年约60万人）减少三分之一，并将总统防治疟疾行动计划的19个非洲对象国及大湄公河（Greater Mekong）地区对象国的疟疾发病率降低40%。

如果上述短期目标能够实现，我们到2050年将能根除疟疾。

但在为取得的成果感到欢欣鼓舞之前，请谨记总统防治疟疾行动计划报告所发出的警示：

“尽管迄今为止所取得的进展具有历史意义，但继续控制疟疾并最终根除疟疾仍然充满严峻的挑战。”

这种导致疟疾的寄生虫正在对能够有效地拯救患者生命的青蒿素抗疟药物形成抗药性。另外一个危险是不合格的疟疾药物及假药大量存在，进一步加剧了寄生虫抗药性的形成。

令人欣慰的是，更有效的抗疟治疗方法正在同时迅速发展。长效杀虫蚊帐已得到研发并可供家庭使用。更有效地驱蚊的杀虫剂和药物治疗法也正日益得到普及。

Malaria initiative closes in on a child killer
 

Approximately 4.3 million people — most of them African children — are alive today because they didn’t get, or didn’t succumb to, malaria.

For more than 10 years, a campaign against this parasitic disease saved those lives with money, work and commitment. Now the international partners who delivered those results have set a higher goal: End malaria by 2050.

The President’s Malaria Initiative Strategy (PMI) 2015–2020 outlines these achievements and goals. The PMI, launched by former President George W. Bush, is one of the organizations at the forefront of the anti-malaria campaign, along with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; the World Bank Malaria Booster Program; and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

To battle roughly 200 million cases annually, goals for the next five years include reducing malaria deaths by one-third from the current level (about 600,000 each year) and reducing malaria occurrence by 40 percent in PMI’s 19 targeted African countries and the Greater Mekong.

If those short-term goals can be met, malaria could be eradicated by 2050.

Before celebrating, consider this warning in the PMI report:

“While the progress to date is historic, the continued control and ultimate elimination of malaria remains fraught with serious challenges.”

The parasite that causes malaria is building a resistance to the artemisinin family of drugs that have been effective in saving lives. Another hazard is the wide availability of substandard and counterfeit malaria treatments, which promote further resistance in the parasite.

Fortunately, more effective anti-malarial tools are scaling up at the same time. Longer-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets have gone from labs to homes. Better mosquito-stopping insecticides and drug therapies also are becoming more widely available.