In This Issue...

Malaria continues to remain a serious, widespread and complex global health problem affecting 109 countries and putting around 3 billion people i.e. 40 % of the world population at the risk of infection. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates around 250 million malaria episodes with over 1 million deaths across the globe every 1,2year. In malaria endemic countries, related illnesses and deaths have serious economic as well as human costs causing an estimated US $12 billion loss in Africa alone each year. The cost of care and reduced productivity due to high malaria burden lowers the growth of country's annual gross national product by 2%. Considering the gravity and its overall impact on human health, poverty and socio-economic development malaria control has 3been included in UN Millennium Development Goals as well. Until late 1960s malaria was not only found in tropical areas of Africa, Latin America and Asia, but also in large parts of Europe