Malaria, still a big problem worldwide

The Lancet reported that 1.24 million people died of Malaria in 2010 and the figure is twice that of the 655,000 deaths that WHO estimated for the same year. In the new study, the researchers included more factors in calculation, such as the availability of bed nets and health care, how fast the disease spreads in an area.

The problem is that WHO's estimation has found to be too far away from the actual figure, if the newly published data is correct. To make matters worse, it has underestimated the number of deaths caused by the disease, and they may have lost their credibility of its publication.

So what makes a certain figure trustworthy? The research should include large number of data. It is important to take various conditions and detailed information into consideration to make it inclusive.

The report also says that the deaths is decreasing since 2004, when it reached the highest of 1.84 million. Thanks to the scaling up of international effort to control the disease, more and more people have been treated. The time may come when malaria is totally eliminated, but it sounds difficult. However good medical intervention becomes, it won't save everybody if they cannot afford it. Medical treatment is still costly after all. The health care system is a problem worldwide not only in Japan but also in other countries.

To make the health care system work properly, the government should be stabilized, politicians should get rid of corruption, and people should pay tax, trusting and supporting their leaders, which seems... a very very long way to go for some countries.