Malaria Kills Millions Every Year in Africa. It is responsible for anywhere from 1 to 3 million deaths per year, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Efforts to eradicate the disease are mounting: in the year 2000, just 3% of children under 5, in sub-Saharan Africa, slept with mosquito nets; by 2008, that figure had risen to 56%. Aid groups now project that aggressive preventive measures can protect 100% of the population by the end of 2010 and reduce the number of deaths to near zero by 2015.

Doing so requires an aggressive and coordinated effort by governments across the region, in concert with world health experts, the UN’s WHO, aid organizations and local communities. Malaria, originally named “the bad air” because it was thought to be airborne, is actually a water and blood-borne disease, transmitted by a particular variety of mosquito. The scarcity of safe drinking water across much of the region leads to ill-advised practices like leaving whatever standing water one can find at hand for human consumption.

This allows mosquitoes to breed and proliferate. Advanced plumbing, with enclosed water systems, could help prevent the constant rampant spread of the disease, but other measures need to be taken first in order to secure the region’s water resources and ensure equitable distribution, to prevent water-linked trade and military conflicts and the further deterioration of troubled civil infrastructure, the collapse of which favors contagion. [Complete text...]

What measures can be most effective for ensuring the solutions best suited to combatting malaria in any given location can reach the people most in need? Can transport, agriculture and hydrological infrastructure all be strengthened simultaneously, or do we need a form of engineering triage aimed at doing the most good as quickly as possible? Which international efforts are doing the best work? What local efforts are most effective?

The first solution that has to be implemented anywhere there is a high incidence of malarial infection is advanced anti-mosquito netting. There are now nets infused with chemical mosquito-cide that is not harmful to human health and that has an effective life long enough to stave off infection over time, if used daily. Simple solutions like reducing or closing standing water deposits and distributing low-cost medications can also help. Infrastructure means medical personnel and advanced medical treatment facilities, which are needed in severe cases to isolate and to treat patients effectively.

From a UNICEF report on mosquito netting to fight malaria infection:

Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) have been developed in response to the low re-treatment rates of conventional insecticide-treated nets, especially in Africa. A long-lasting net is a ready-to-use pre-treated mosquito net, which requires no further treatment during its expected life span. This is the preferred choice of mosquito net for UNICEF-supported programmes.

The following LLINs are procured regularly by UNICEF. A broader range of long-lasting insecticidal nets can be procured through UNICEF Supply Division upon request.

From The New York Times:

A vaccine to protect children against malaria has been shown moderately effective in a large clinical trial — an achievement that could save millions of lives. The vaccine, known as RTS,S and made by GlaxoSmithKline, is the first ever to be shown effective against a human disease caused by parasites. When tested in 6,000 infants ages 5 to 17 months in seven sub-Saharan nations, it reduced the risk of infection with severe malaria by 47 percent during the year after the shots, far less than the 90 percent efficacy rate typically sought for other vaccines. And there are other big hurdles still to surmount. There are hints that the protection may wane over time and results from administering a booster shot won’t be known until 2014. Side effects could pose a problem; seizures and fevers were higher among children given the vaccine.

If final results of this ongoing study, which involves more than 15,000 children in all, show that the vaccine is safe and effective, the goal is to deploy it in 2015.

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