 
A Comprehensive Approach
Bed Nets | Spraying | Drugs | Education | Vaccine | PMI | Resources Malaria has been brought under control and even eliminated in many parts of Asia, Europe and the Americas. Yet in Africa, with very efficient mosquito vectors, increasing drug resistance and struggling health systems, malaria infections have actually increased over the last three decades. Infections worldwide now number around 350 to 500 million cases a year, with over a million deaths, mostly among the young in Africa. Experts agree that to control malaria, and ultimately to ensure that families can live malaria-free lives, a comprehensive approach is necessary. Such an approach involves providing insecticide-treated bed nets, spraying the inside walls of houses with insecticides, providing access to diagnosis and antimalarial drugs, and providing a packet of interventions through strengthened antenatal care services for pregnant women. Underpinning these four is education – empowering families and communities with the knowledge and resources to combat this disease. Additionally, while we work to control malaria through available tools, we need to continue to support the development of a vaccine.
Bed Nets: Your Way To Save a Life Long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets (LLINs) work by creating a protective barrier against mosquitoes at night, when the vast majority of transmissions occur. The African malaria mosquitoes generally bite late at night or early morning, between 10pm and 4am. Most mosquito nets can accommodate more than one person – a mother and an infant or a few siblings – for up to three to five years. A net treated with special insecticides offers about twice the protection of an untreated net, and through its repellency, can even protect other people in the room outside the net. When enough people (about 70 percent) sleep under LLINs, entire communities, even houses without an LLIN, can be made safer. Malaria No More uses the contributions from the public to fund proven, established bed net distribution programs throughout Africa. Depending on where these programs operate, bed nets may be given away for free, like in rural areas, or through a voucher system in some urban areas. Your gift of $10 provides a family a bed net – including the purchase, distribution and education as well as monitoring and evaluation. Bed nets are only one tool in the comprehensive solution to control malaria, and a portion of each $10 gift supports Malaria No More's overall work to control this deadly disease. Although $10 for a bed net may not sound like much, affording it is an impossibility for most people at risk of contracting malaria. That's where Malaria No More comes in. Killing Mosquitoes (Indoor Residual Spraying) While LLINs are generally effective in Africa wherever they can be consistently used, sometimes specialized teams are organized to spray an insecticide on the inside walls of houses (a process known as Indoor Residual Spraying, or IRS). This helps kill the female mosquito after she feeds on a person, reducing malaria transmission to others. In some special circumstances, teams are also organized to eliminate or treat mosquito breeding sites with another type of environmentally-friendly insecticide. However, because the African malaria mosquitoes are so prolific and have such a broad range of breeding habits, this type of "larval control" may only be applicable in some areas, as determined by local assessment. Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the most effective drugs currently available for treating malaria. New cheaper ACTs need to be developed and strategies to deliver them need to be implemented and evaluated so they can be accessed by the people who need them. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Medicines for Malaria Venture are helping to develop new drugs; while the President's Malaria Initiative, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the World Bank's Booster Program for Malaria Control in Africa are working with Ministries of Health on delivery and access issues. In addition to artemisinin-based combination therapies, pregnant women can be helped by administering at least two monthly treatment doses of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. More than 70 percent of pregnant women in Africa attend antenatal clinics at least once during their pregnancy. A regime of SP helps protect pregnant women from possible death and anemia and also prevents malaria-related low birthweight in infants, which causes about 100,000 infant deaths annually in Africa. Malaria No More will work with these and other groups to coordinate the research and distribution of ACTs and SP. Whether it is around how to properly and consistently use a bed net, how to recognize the illness in a child and take appropriate measures (like administering new artemisinin-based combination therapies), how to protect pregnant women and unborn children, or the importance of indoor residual spraying, a large part of Malaria No More's effort in the future will be directed at educating families in Africa about malaria. One of the most important early messages is that LLINs work. While there are other types of mosquitoes that bite during the day or early evening, the malaria mosquitoes bite late at night, and LLINs are far more cost effective than aerosols or burning mosquito coils. We envision creating kits and other tools to make the job of such on-the-ground education easier and more effective. At the same time that we work to control malaria through available tools, we need to continue to support the development of a vaccine. As with any disease, finding a vaccine to protect individuals from malaria would create the best possible defense. Around the world, from Sweden to Kenya, from Australia to the United States, world class physicians are working on this important research. However, the malaria parasites have proven to be remarkably adaptable, meaning they change their characteristics as antibodies are developed; this adaptability has made finding a vaccine especially challenging. Most experts agree that the world is at least a decade away from any sort of effective vaccine. In the meantime, we need to concentrate on providing solutions for prevention and treatment that exist today. For further information, see the Malaria Vaccine Initiative. Government and Multilateral Efforts The President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), announced by President George W. Bush in 2005, is a $1.2 billion, five year initiative. The goal of the PMI is to cut malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in 15 target countries in Africa, eventually benefiting at least 175 million people. This goal will be achieved by reaching 85 percent of the most vulnerable groups – children under five years of age and pregnant women – with a comprehensive approach to prevent and treat malaria, including insecticide-treated bed nets. PMI coordinates with national malaria control programs and international partners, including the World Bank's Booster Program for Malaria Control in Africa, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, and the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. President Bush has called on other donors, foundations, and private, public, and voluntary organizations to complement this initiative and provide additional funding. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Measles Initiative National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease The President's Malaria Initiative PRI's The World - The Forgotten Plague: Malaria Roll Back Malaria Partnership UNICEF UNICEF Video: The significance of Africa Malaria Day and the state of the effort to roll back malaria World Health Organization World Malaria Report 2005 by UNICEF and WHO |
   Read recent articles about the disease from National Geographic magazine and other publications. More... |
