ABSTRACT
The evolution of malaria over the last thirty years shows that far from regressing, the disease is actually in a process of reglobalisation. While health institutions confine themselves to analysing the economic impact of the pandemic, the authors call for a reposing of the problem in other terms. The unprecedented resurgence of malaria is in fact contemporary with the application of structural adjustment programmes, as devised and imple mented by international financial institutions since the 1980s. An examination of these programmes reveals that they serve to organise and secure the transfer of wealth from popula tions in the South to the ruling classes of the South and North. Their considerable economic and social impact interferes with the determinants of malaria on several levels and explains the resurgence of the disease. Applying solely technical solutions to the problem is therefore not enough: to reverse the trend, it is the current world economic order that must radically change.
affected by this disease, which claims between 1.7 and 2.3 million lives. More than 40% of the world population is currendy exposed to malaria and the number of confirmed cases is on the increase. The regions concerned are primarily in tropical and sub-tropical zones, among which Sub-Saharan Africa pays the heaviest toll, with more than 90% of fatalities. Malarias primary targets are the young: it is estimated that the disease kills an African child every thirty seconds and that it is the leading cause of child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa.
