this map from the collection of the college of physicians historical medical library shows deaths from typhoid fever and malaria in washington, d.c. between 1888 and 1892. / photo courtesy of the college of physicians of philadelphia  did you know at least eight u.s. presidents are believed to have contracted malaria during their lifetime? or that even as late as the 1930s, the u.s. recorded millions of malaria cases within its borders?  yet by 1951, the spread of malaria was halted in the united states.  if we can do it here, we can do the same around the world.  in president obama’s final state of the union address, he defined american leadership as “rallying the world behind causes that are right.”  “we are on track to end the scourge of hiv/aids — that’s within our grasp,” president obama said in his speech on jan. 12. “and we have the chance to accomplish the same thing with malaria. … that’s american strength. that’s american leadership. and that kind of leadership depends on the power of our example.”  these global health goals are no longer deemed too ambitious or too complex. and that’s because we’ve done it before.  the story of u.s. leadership in the fight against infectious diseases is one of immense success and progress. from smallpox, measles, guinea worm and polio, to malaria and ebola, our determination, grit and know-how have helped eliminate or push many killers to the brink of extinction.  although we’ve exceeded our ambitious malaria goals in the last decade under the u.s. president’s malaria initiative, we still have a long way to go. malaria continues to cause unacceptable levels of death and suffering. in africa, a child dies every minute because of the disease.
“rallying the world” to defeat malaria