International health agencies at the United Nations have documented enormous gains made over the past decade to curb three devastating diseases: AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Despite this great progress, there is still a big gap between what's been accomplished and what more could be done with sufficient financing.
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The World Health Organization estimated in a report issued Wednesday that global efforts to control and eliminate malaria had cut the mortality rate by 45 percent globally and by 49 percent in Africa between 2000 and 2012. Even so, there were an estimated 627,000 malaria deaths in 2012, a vast majority in sub-Saharan Africa.
The main weapons against malaria are insecticide-treated bed nets to ward off mosquitoes and drugs for those who become ill. In sub-Saharan Africa, much less than half of the population had access to nets this year, and millions lack access to tests and drug treatments. Global financing for malaria control reached an estimated $2.5 billion in 2012, just under half the sum needed each year.
Tuberculosis control has followed a similar trajectory. The health organization reported two months ago that the global mortality rate from tuberculosis had fallen by 45 percent since 1990. But, in 2012, 1.3 million died, an unacceptably high toll given that most deaths are preventable if cases are detected early and treated properly.
The pattern is repeated in the battle against the virus that causes AIDS. A United Nations agency recently estimated that new H.I.V. infections among adults and children totaled 2.3 million in 2012, a 33 percent drop since 2001, and that AIDS-related deaths totaled 1.6 million, a drop of 30 percent from a peak in 2005, mostly because more patients had gained access to antiviral drugs. But an estimated 35 million people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, are infected and only about 10 million are being treated.
Pledges by nations to have fallen short. It will be shameful if millions of people are left to die while donors look the other way.
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