World Bank Accused of Medical Malpractice and Financial Mismanagement in Global Malaria Control
Revered British medical journal takes on the international lending institution
May 5, 2006
The World Bank, sponsored primarily by the United States, has recently been accused of medical malpractice and financial mismanagement by a group of malaria scientists and health economists. Three years ago, this same group took on the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the World Health Organization for similar reasons, and today, those bodies have both turned around. Due to similar efforts by the Congress, led by Senators Coburn and Brownback, and especially, by President Bush the U.S. Agency for International Development has also turned around. We hope that the World Bank will be the next to choose sound science over ideology. In the meantime, malaria is still the number one killer of young children and pregnant women in Africa.
Learn all about the global effort to reform failing malaria control efforts
Dr. Coburn is a co-sponsor of S.950 The Eliminate Neglected Diseases (END) Act. The END Act takes a science-driven, outcomes-based approach to foreign aid delivered by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for programs to control malaria, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases (see below for bill text and summaries). Fortunately, USAID chose to enact major reforms in the malaria control program when President Bush announced his President's Management Initiative. But help is still needed to reform other USAID health programs to focus on delivering life-saving interventions rather than just advice-giving programs and conferences.
