Tropical Diseases

Gregory Campbell Excerpts
Tuesday 27th October 2015

(9 years ago)

Westminster Hall
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Gregory Campbell Portrait Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)
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I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this debate. Does he agree that while significant progress has been made, the fact that 200 million new cases of malaria have been reported this year alone calls into question our legitimate and worthwhile attempt to try to eliminate malaria in the next 15 years?

Jeremy Lefroy Portrait Jeremy Lefroy
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I entirely agree with the hon. Gentleman. Between 450,000 and 500,000 people—they are mainly children—are dying unnecessarily every year from the disease. How did the tremendous progress—I stress that huge progress has indeed been made—happen? Principally, reliable long-term funding enabled the development and implementation of various interventions, including prevention through insecticide-treated bed nets and the development of vaccines, and diagnosis through the rapid diagnostic tests that enable people, particularly children, to be diagnosed with malaria in the village, rather than having to come to a laboratory in a town when the malaria may be severe.