Malaria, AIDS, TB in retreat: Global Fund

Malaria could be eliminated as a public health problem within a decade in most countries where it is now endemic, an international organization that funds the treatment and prevention of killer diseases said on Monday.

The elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV -- the virus that causes AIDS -- is within reach by 2015, the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said.

And the prevalence of tuberculosis is also declining in many countries, the fund said in its 2010 report.

"A world where no children are born with HIV is truly possible by 2015, the fund's executive director, Michel Kazatchkine, said in a statement.

"It is also possible now to imagine a world with no more malaria deaths," he said.

The fund says its programs have saved 4.9 million lives since it was set up in 2002.

The fund's report celebrates the advances against the diseases, particular scourges in developing countries, since it was set up as a public/private partnership to mobilize resources for their prevention and treatment.

The three diseases are among the largest killers of women and children, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where 52 percent of deaths of women of childbearing age are due to HIV, TB and malaria and malaria accounts for 16-18 percent of child deaths.