Malaria, the killer that won't go away

FIFTEEN years ago when, as a doctor, I treated people in Rwanda, we relied on presumptive diagnosis – anyone with a fever was treated for malaria. A great deal of progress has been made since then on the complex issues of diagnosing malaria, drug resistance and access to care. Nonetheless, in this raw and vivid account, Sonia Shah gives an alarmingly accurate picture of how basic practices like presumptive diagnosis still endure. In too many countries malaria is viewed with little more seriousness than the common cold, not as a public health crisis that kills close to a million people…