Malaria deaths in India 10 times as many as thought

This makes the ban on DDT look criminal:

Malaria deaths in India 10 times as many as thought - health - 22 October 2010 - New Scientist: "Malaria has always been one of humanity's biggest killers, but it may be far bigger than we realised. An unprecedented survey of the disease suggests that it kills between 125,000 and 277,000 people per year in India alone. In contrast, the World Health Organization puts India's toll at just 16,000.

Other countries using similar accounting methods, such as Indonesia, may also be underestimating deaths from malaria. That means it could be killing many more than the WHO's official estimate of nearly 1 million people a year worldwide, suggesting more money should be spent to fight it."

Estimates of malaria deaths in India are based on death rates recorded in clinics. They are corrected in an attempt to account for people missed by the health system, but a new study by an international team of researchers has found that these numbers have been vastly underestimated. This is partly because so many cases never make it to a clinic and because these people are more likely to die than those that get medical help.