A deadline on malaria.

key international organizations and businesses—set a timetable for comprehensive malaria control in Africa by the end of 2010. Secretary-General Ban has thrown down the gauntlet: there is no reason why a million or more children should die every year of a largely preventable and wholly treatable disease. The operational objective is to ensure that crucial interventions are taken continent-wide and at the appropriate scale within the next two and a half years. As I described in this space in October 2007, the package of technical control measures is now settled. There should be restriction of the mosquito vector (especially through the use of insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor spraying of insecticides); timely treatment of every clinical case with effective medicines; preventive treatment for pregnant women; and trained community health workers who will link clinics and communities in rural areas. In view of the lives to be saved and the economic benefits of reining in the disease, the total cost of around $3 billion a year is one of the world's great bargains. The main challenge will therefore be organizational rather than conceptual or scientific. Many skeptics doubt that this kind of program can work, much less on an accelerated timetable. The international system is a congeries of overlapping public and private institutions without clear mandates, ease of coordination or a single " conductor " to harmonize activities. Many of these institutions are sporadically funded. The recipient governments are not always noted for their transparency, efficiency and accountability, to say the least. Yet the chances for success are also strong. Many African leaders have long been committed to this fight. The U.N. secretary-general and the office of his special envoy on malaria represent a clear point of leadership. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria serves as a dominant funding organization. Happily, the U.S. government is committed to its own sizable contribution, which will likely grow in view of robust congressional support. Finally, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership has had years of experience in bringing the multitude of " partner institutions " under one roof. The needed technologies are relatively straightforward and much easier to use than those, for example, for controlling the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Bed nets and antimalaria medicines could be deployed rapidly to good effect. We may also take heart in the success of an immunization campaign in reducing the number of deaths from measles in Africa …