In 2001, an anonymous donor gave the School $100 million towards the defeat of malaria. Why malaria? Each year 300-500 million clinical cases of the disease, 90 percent of them in Africa, cause between 1.5 million and 3 million deaths globally. This age-old scourge of mankind, endemic to more than 90 countries, works like a "disease tax" that lowers the standard of living of hundreds of millions of people around the globe. Quick facts about malaria –> - Estimated cost of a single bout of malaria in India and Africa: 10-20 working days
- Amount spent each year by a very-low-income African family for malaria treatment: $19 (out of a yearly income of $68)
- Percentage of African children killed by malaria: 5 percent, or almost 3,000 each day
- Most common age at death: 4 years
- Areas of the world where Anopheles mosquitoes, which transmit malaria, are common: most populated regions of the world, including almost everywhere in the United States
- Places in the United States where outbreaks of malaria have been transmitted locally in the past five years by indigenous mosquitoes: California, Texas, Michigan, and near New York City
- Number of malaria cases reported in the United States each year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (considered to be about half the actual number of cases occurring in the country): between 1,600 and 2,000
- Number of drugs commercially available for the treatment of malaria: 8
- Number of drugs which are consistently effective against the malaria parasite: 0
- Number of drugs that scientists know are resisted by some strains of malaria: 8
- Number of major Western pharmaceutical companies now researching new malaria drugs: 1
The Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute
Malaria Research at the School
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