Development and Cooperation


	Contributions from the Column Facts and trends No agreement on generic exports Worldwide privatisation of education Widespread protest against impending war with Iraq Zimbabwe: "Against Mugabe but for the people" IMF waters down insolvency law proposal EU Commission proposes seemingly generous reduction of agricultural subsidies Malaria 02/2003		Malaria Malaria is a disease for which there is no vaccine and – because of pathogen resistance – a growing number of therapies which have been rendered ineffective. So it came as good news when scientists at Giessen and Tübingen universities announced in mid-December that successful trials have been conducted on an antibiotic that kills the malaria parasite within 48 hours. The active agent is fosmidomycin, a substance developed in Japan in the late 1970s but never tested as an anti-malarial drug. Now, under the supervision of Tübingen specialist in tropical diseases Peter Kremsner, clinical trials are underway at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon. And the results are encouraging: 90 percent of an initial 27 malaria patients treated with fosmidomycin recovered within two weeks. Malaria kills more than a million people a year, 90 percent of them in Africa. (uke) Net resources: Malaria www.who.int/health topics/malaria/en/