There was good news in Asia Friday on World Malaria Day 2008 because Sri Lanka, once one of the nations in the region with the worst malaria rate, has nearly eradicated the disease.

Rabindra Abeyasinghe, acting director of the government's anti-malaria campaign, told U.N. humanitarian news agency IRIN, that the country would have had an easier time fighting the disease if it had been able to move about freely in the northern areas of the country that are controlled by Tamil Tiger separatists

Although malaria is a curable and preventable disease it still kills one million people a year, and infects 350 million. It remains the single largest killer of children in Africa with about 3,000 children dying of the disease there every day.

In The Republic of Congo, one widowed mother who earns $240 a month as a civil servant says she often spends up to $170 a month on medicine to treat her six children for malaria during the year

Health authorities in Madagascar have sought help from three United Nations agencies to contain an outbreak of the deadly Rift Valley Fever that has killed 17 people and infected 59 others.

A UN press statement said Friday that officials in Madagascar have asked the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health to undertake a joint mission to the country to support their efforts to contain theviral hemorrhagic disease

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown taped a message on U.K.'s efforts to help Africa battle malaria which was shown Wednesday night at the popular U.S. talent search American Idol.

The segment was shown at show's Idol Gives Back charity special in which Brown even challenged other nations to match its commitment to purchase 20 million mosquito nets to help protection Africans from malaria

Asia faces growing challenges from rising temperatures and increased rainfall that threaten to increase poverty, hunger and disease according to the World Health Organization's World Health Day report.

Although the threats from the effects of global warming are worldwide, people living in developing nations are more vulnerable because they have fewer resources to deal with the changes, officials say