Editorial Malaria: an eradicable threat?

Copyright © 2008 Rodriguez-Morales. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The global burden of malaria stills represents a significant threat in the developing world. More than 100 countries and territories have areas at risk of malaria transmission, with around 3.2 billion people living in these areas [1]. An estimated 350 to 500 million clinical malaria episodes occur annually; most of these are caused by infection with Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax. The first causes more than 1 million deaths each year, also contributing indirectly to many additional deaths, mainly in young children, through synergy with other infections and illnesses [1]. Unfortunately, approximately 60 % of the world’s cases of malaria, including close to 75 % of the global falciparum malaria cases, occur in Sub-Saharian Africa [1]. Furthermore, over 80 % of worldwide malaria deaths occur in this region [1]. This terrible scenario is the target of physicians and multidisciplinary researchers worldwide who aim to halve the burden of this humankind threat by 201