ABSTRACT
In the fight against malaria, WHO started with control, then launched into an ambitious eradication programme, then changed back to control and elimination. A major challenge is the capacity of WHO to design and lead such a programme on its own terms, while it needs to cooperate with many public and private agencies. The importance of malaria as a public health problem is recognized by WHO from its inception. Malaria had been one of the concerns of the League of Nations, but it was limited to epidemiology and drugs, and did not include anti-mosquito measures of malaria control. WHO's original policy relied on residual insecticides, that is the use of DDT against adult mosquitoes as the main instrument for malaria control. Moreover, the potential for strengthening health systems in malaria-endemic countries are often constrained by low national incomes and per capita domestic spending on health and malaria control'.
