Phil Thuma Videos

Every year since 1983, pediatrician Phil Thuma has fought to save the lives of the children of Macha, Zambia during the February-to-May malaria season. "God put African children on my heart. This is my home area, and these are my kids," says Thuma, whose missionary parents opened the hospital where he works. Thuma saw that treatment alone wasn't enough and began a research effort that has led to a collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, which established a major research site there in 2005. In this January 2006 interview in Macha with Johns Hopkins Public Health magazine editor Brian W. Simpson, Thuma reflects on the challenge of fighting malaria in rural Africa and the promise of new artemisinin-based treatments.