Costs and financial feasibility of malaria elimination.

The marginal costs and benefits of converting malaria programmes from a control to an elimination goal are central to strategic decisions, but empirical evidence is scarce. We present a conceptual framework to assess the economics of elimination and analyse a central component of that framework-potential short-term to medium-term financial savings. After a review that showed a dearth of existing evidence, the net present value of elimination in five sites was calculated and compared with effective control.

National malaria control and scaling up for impact: the Zambia experience through 2006.

With its 2006-2011 National Malaria Strategic Plan, Zambia committed to control malaria at a national scale. This scale-up for impact approach was facilitated by sound business planning and financing in 2006 of approximately US$35 million. Compared with surveys in 2001 and 2004, a 2006 national survey of 14,681 persons in 2,999 households at the end of the transmission season showed substantial coverage increases for preventive interventions.

Viewpoint: evaluating the impact of malaria control efforts on mortality in sub-Saharan Africa.

Objective: To describe an approach for evaluating the impact of malaria control efforts on malaria-associated mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, where disease-specific mortality trends usually cannot be measured directly and most malaria deaths occur among young children.

Methods: Methods for evaluating changes in malaria-associated mortality are examined; advantages and disadvantages are presented.

Results: All methods require a plausibility argument-i.

Is malaria a disease of poverty? A review of the literature.

Objective: To review the evidence on the link between malaria and poverty.

Methods: Review of the published and grey literature to identify (i) the data available on the socio-economic distribution of malaria incidence and vulnerability, and (ii) the uptake of malaria control interventions.

Results: We found mixed evidence on malaria incidence, with a number of studies identifying no relationship between socio-economic status and incidence, although a larger number of studies do find a link.

The costs of interpersonal violence--an international review.

This article reviews evidence of the economic impact of interpersonal violence internationally. In the United States, estimates of the costs of interpersonal violence reach 3.3% of GDP.

Do malaria control interventions reach the poor? A view through the equity lens.

Malaria, more than any other disease of major public health importance in developing countries, disproportionately affects poor people, with 58% of malaria cases occurring in the poorest 20% of the world's population. If malaria control interventions are to achieve their desired impact, they must reach the poorest segments of the populations of developing countries. Unfortunately, a growing body of evidence from benefit-incidence analyses has demonstrated that many public health interventions that were designed to aid the poor are not reaching their intended target.