Low priority
In the past the spread of antimalarial resistance resulted in millions of deaths. Urgent action is needed but malaria is seen as low priority as compared to other diseases. Antimalarial resistance affects the most disadvantaged and most vulnerable of societies – poor African children. They are shouldering the worst burdens of drug resistance. They are already unjustly disadvantaged due to poverty, lack of access to healthcare and lack of resources.
A complex problem
Malaria has killed many more people than COVID-19 is ever likely to, but it took more than 100 years from the discovery of the parasite for the first vaccine to be registered – a very long delay compared to COVID-19 for which vaccines were registered within the first year of the pandemic. One reason for the delay is the complicated nature of the malaria parasite and the challenges in understanding immunity malaria. It is extremely difficult to develop a vaccine for a parasitic disease that has co-evolved with humans for many thousands of years.
An epidemic of the poor
Despite the great burden of malaria there has not been the same incentive for manufacturers as for diseases that affect richer populations.