Malaria is one of the most important "emerging" or "resurgent" infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organization, this mosquito-borne infection is a leading cause of suffering, death, poverty, and underdevelopment in the world today. Every year 500 million people become severely ill from malaria and more than a million people die, the great majority of them women and children living in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2008, it was estimated, a child would die of the disease every thirty seconds, making malaria - together with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis - a global public health emergency. Th