Goal of eliminating malaria in sight: experts

* Efforts bring goal of eradicating malaria within sight

* Disease still infects 500 million a year, kills 1 million

* Vaccine tests starting shortly

By Jonathan Lynn

GENEVA (Reuters) - Fresh efforts and funding to tackle malaria in recent years have brought the goal of eradicating the deadly disease within sight, health experts said on Friday.

Wiping out malaria worldwide could take decades but many countries where it is endemic are on the brink of eliminating the disease, which infects up to 500 million people a year and kills nearly one million worldwide, they said.

"The vision of achieving elimination in a number of countries is certainly in sight," said Rifat Atun, strategy director at the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an international financing institution.

Most malaria victims are children under the age of five and pregnant women. Roughly 90 percent of fatalities are in Africa, where malaria accounts for one in five childhood deaths.

The goal of eradicating malaria, caused by a parasite transmitted in mosquito bites, could take until 2050 or 2060, said Richard Feachem, chairman of the Malaria Elimination Group.

But it is now endemic in only about half the world's countries after being eliminated from others such as Canada and Finland since 1945, he told a news conference, launching two reports by the group for policymakers and health specialists.

SQUEEZING MALARIA

One report focuses on destroying malaria in countries such as Mexico, South Africa and China on the margins of the tropical areas where it is endemic.

Feachem said the strategy was aggressive control in the heartland to reduce infection and death, elimination country by country from the margins, and research into drugs, vaccines and insecticides.

He said countries could learn from tough rules imposed in Singapore. The tropical city state makes it illegal for construction companies to allow malaria-bearing mosquitoes to breed on building sites and makes individuals responsible for preventing stagnant water gathering in their homes.

"In a country where the legislative and political environment permits it ... legislation can play an important role, requiring householders to do certain things," he said.

The fight against malaria takes several forms -- spraying bednets and homes to deter mosquitoes, using drugs to treat infected people and finding a vaccine to prevent infection.