Professor David Schellenberg is one of our Policy Advisors and was interviewed on the BBC World Service’s Focus on Africa programme last week to mark the launch of the new report, Roll Back Malaria Partnership: A Decade of Partnership and Results.

David is Professor of Malaria & International Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and has spent many years living in Africa. In the interview he discusses why the international community has made such progress in tackling malaria – saving an estimated 1.l million lives in Africa in the last decade. He also describes the important impact of African government policies to introduce widespread use of Long Lasting Insecticide treated Nets and highlight the need to now invest in new insecticides and drugs to tackle malaria.

David shares why the introduction of malaria testing is, “revolutionising malaria control,” by ensuring people are correctly diagnosed and treated for malaria. He recalls having many fevers himself when he lived in Tanzania, that were not caused by malaria and says “quite a lot of these fevers are not due to malaria so it’s quite important to have a diagnostic test so we can be confident when our fever is due to malaria or due to something else.”

David’s interview reached around 10 million English speakers across Africa including some of his friends in Tanzania who reported hearing his piece!

Prof Schellenberg on BBC Focus on Africa for RBM Report
Find out more about Prof. David Schellenberg
Learn more about the importance of using tests to track and treat malaria