The return of the big three killers

摘要

The 'big three' killer diseases are malaria, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS, and tuberculosis (TB), which probably account together for >6 million deaths per year. In the past 15 years, major sources of funding, including from the UN's Global Fund, have led to significant progress in the fight against each one of these diseases (http://www.theglobalfund. org/en/). However, recent reports and data are calling into question an optimism that might have been too premature. The access to and early use of effective antimalarial treatment—the most effective antimalarial drugs being arte-misinin-based combination therapies and the emerging approach of intermittent preventive treatment—have been key elements in the decline in global malaria incidence in the past 10 years [I]. However, the emergence of artemisinin resistance on the Cambodia-Thailand border is of great concern, and represents a major threat in the fight against malaria.