Editorial: Common sense cure

Monday, July 3, 2006 | 7:31 a.m.

As the world continues to focus attention on the battle against AIDS in Africa, malaria is killing 800,000 children there a year. That's staggering given that malaria is much easier to treat. Curative medicines cost about 55 cents, all-important mosquito nets sell for $5 and homes can be sprayed with insecticide for $10 a year, The New York Times reported in a two-part series last week. Experts say that inexpensive combination could save most of the afflicted.

"We pretty well do know what the silver set of bullets are," Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., a leader on the issue, said at a 2004 hearing. We also pretty well know why the solutions haven't gotten to the problem. The battle against malaria in Africa has been marred by wasted money, corrupt African officials and flawed programs mismanaged by the U.S. government and international aid groups.

But there is good news in the form of a renewed commitment by governments and the private sector to smarter programs, new accountability, a consensus on what solutions work - and more cash.

Among the high-profile leaders in the battle against malaria are Bill and Melinda Gates - whose philanthropic operation swelled last week with a $31 billion pledge from Warren Buffett. Meanwhile the Bush administration is goading Congress to at least triple its malaria spending to $300 million by 2008. And the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria now is considering common-sense new tactics to bypass government corruption, such as providing governments with nets and other commodities directly, instead of giving them money to buy the supplies.

Dramatically curbing malaria will not be easy despite seemingly simple solutions. African governments, not foreign entities, ultimately must maintain the anti-malaria programs - and they must see to it that nets are actually being used and that there are adequate health care providers. The programs need more scrutiny and more focus on spending money on the essentials.

But malaria does not need to be "the main source of unnecessary suffering in the world," as a former adviser to President Bush, Michael Gerson, has put it. The right strategies, wisely implemented, could ease this misery.