A scene from a World Malaria Day event at the United Nations. From left: Rajat Gupta, chairman of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Ann M. Veneman, UNICEF Executive Director and Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. PHOTO: Jay Mandal/On Assignment
There's a big new effort to eradicate malaria. And unlike a lot of other efforts with vague, intangible goals, this one has a deadline a thousands days from now. From the UN press release:
A bold initiative announced today by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today brings together the many forces fighting malaria to focus on one goal: providing universal coverage of malaria-control measures in Africa, where 90 per cent of malaria cases occur, by the end of 2010.
Global health leaders stood shoulder to shoulder at UN headquarters in New York to outline a roadmap for success and rally governments, corporations, international institutions and private citizens to work toward ending malaria deaths.
UNICEF, the World Heath Organization and the Malaria No More partnership are among those who will now join forces on behalf of 600 million people at risk of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. They will work to provide universal coverage for malaria prevention and treatment by 31 December 2010 – less than 1,000 days from now.
Rajat Gupta, the former head of McKinsey & Co and chairman of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was part of the launch announcement.
Almost exactly a year ago, we wrote about Gupta becoming chair of the fund and all his other nonprofit/educational activities (I also included some comments about interviewing him for the first time in April 1994). Watch a short January 2008 video of Gupta talking about malaria at Davos:
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