Number of African children dying from malaria approaches a million a year

While we worry about AIDS we tend to forget the toll of TB and Malaria in developing countries. A news extra in the BMJ today referrences data from the Feb 28 Issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology noting that:
Between 700 000 and 900 000 children in sub-Saharan Africa aged under 5 years died of the disease in 2000, accounting for 16% to 20% of deaths in that age group, the report estimates. The authors said the results suggest that malaria mortality increased during the 1980s and 1990s, and they cited previous studies that blame the increase on growing resistance to the commonly used antimalarial drug chloroquine. Malaria is directly accountable for around 18% of deaths among children in sub-Saharan Africa