The Real Health Crisis

With all the discussion of a) the health crisis and b) the problems of poverty and lack of development and c) the need for giant international cooperation to solve the pressing problems of the day, why is so little attention paid to a huge public health disaster in the world today? The problem: malaria. It is deadly, widespread and could be prevented, and yet nobody seems to want to do anything about it. The invaluable Bjorn Lomborg has yet another column about it in The Wall Street Journal. As he notes, right now there are people arguing that to curtail the effects of global worming, we should make changes which will cost $40 trillion per year. (To get some perspective on that number, US GDP in 2008 was $14.5 trillion. (As an aside, this perhaps explains why some people aren't too keen on the whole End Global Warming campaign.) To stop the spread of malaria would cost, not $40 trillion per year, but $3 billion per year. (To get some perspective on that number, $3 billion is what the US federal government just spent on Cash-for-Clunkers.) The malaria problem is devastating sub-Saharan Africa, and yet it is almost impossible to find anyone who realizes malaria is a serious problem. HIV-infection rates are also a serious problem in sub-Saharan Africa, and people talk about that all the time. We don't have an easy remedy for HIV infection. We do have easy remedies to stop the spread of malaria. Why isn't that the Cause of the Day?