Problems tracking success of disease campaigns in LDCs

Attempts to eradicate or at least reduce disease burdens in less-developed countries have faced another blow to their credibility,  with the appearance of a report by William Easterly, co-director of the  US New York University's Development Research Institute, into claims of  success in countering malaria. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,  which already attracts criticism over fears that its sheer size can  create distortions to the local economies where it operates, issued data  claiming that Zambia had experienced a 50% drop in child malaria rates.  Similar improvements were alleged to have been made in Ethiopia.