UN appeals for $3.2 billion to meet malaria goal

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The global campaign to fight malaria is appealing for $3.2 billion to try to reach the U.N. goal of "near-zero" deaths from the mosquito-borne disease by 2015.

Ray Chambers, the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy for malaria, told reporters Monday that there has been "great progress" in reducing malaria deaths using bednets, insecticide spray and drugs.

He cited a World Health Organization report in December, which used figures from 2010, saying malaria deaths had decreased by over one-third. Since then, he said, the world has delivered 160 million additional bednets "so we expect the number of deaths to be much less now."

Chambers said that in the last six years, the campaign to fight malaria has raised over $6 billion.