dations to the U.S. government on promising and feasible strategies to address the problem. During the 18-month study, the committee reviewed the state of the science in the major areas of malariology, identified gaps in knowledge within each of the major disciplines, and developed recommendations for future action in malaria research and control.
Chapter 2 summarizes key aspects of the individual state-of-the-science chapters, and is intended to serve as a basic introduction to the medical and scientific aspects of malaria, including its clinical signs, diagnosis, treatment, and control. Chapter 3 provides a historical overview of malaria, from roughly 3000 B.C. to the present, with special emphasis on efforts in this century to eradicate and control the disease. The state-of-the-science reviews, which start in Chapter 4, begin with a scenario titled “Where We Want To Be in the Year 2010.” Each scenario describes where the discipline would like to be in 20 years and how, given an ideal world, the discipline would have contributed to malaria control efforts. The middle section of each chapter contains a critical review of the current status of knowledge in the particular field. The final section lays out specific directions for future research based on a clear identification of the major gaps in scientific understanding for that discipline. The committee urges those agencies that fund malaria research to consult the end of each state-of-the-science chapter for suggestions on specific research opportunities in malaria.
This study was sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.
A major finding of the committee is the need to increase donor and public awareness of the growing risk presented by the resurgence of malaria. Overall, funding levels are not adequate to meet the problem. The committee believes that funding in the past focused too sharply on specific technologies and particular control strategies (e.g., indiscriminate use of insecticide spraying). Future support must be balanced among the needs outlined in this report. The issue for prioritization is not whether to select specific technologies or control strategies, but to raise the priority for solv-