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Bush Renews Effort to Cut Malaria Deaths
South African pop star Yvonne Chaka Chaka, an activist in the fight against malaria, speaks at a White House summit in Washington last week.
(By J. Scott Applewhite -- Associated Press)
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The impact of nets is especially dramatic. Villages that got them in randomized controlled trials experienced declines in malaria deaths in young children of 33 percent (Kenya) and 17 percent (Ghana). In Gambia, the nets cut mortality from all causes, not just malaria, by 25 percent in children ages 1 to 9.
Insecticide-impregnated nets cost about $10 each -- within the reach of small donors, including children in rich countries, though out of the reach of many African households. They are the focus of numerous charitable campaigns now underway.
One, called "Nothing but Nets," has raised $1.7 million since May. It was inspired by Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly, was launched by the United Nations Foundation and is supported by the National Basketball Association and the Methodist Church, among others. Newly formed Malaria No More, which promotes public-private partnerships, has produced a 16-page book called "Nets Are Nice" (with a foreword by Laura Bush) that will be given to every American first-grader in March.
Africa's Lubombo Region, which encompasses parts of northeastern South Africa, eastern Swaziland and southern Mozambique, is the best example of what can be done when all five measures are undertaken in concert.
Before 1999, 86 percent of children in the most severely affected part of Mozambique were infected with malaria annually. That fell to 21 percent four years later. In the Swaziland district, malaria incidence fell from 130 cases per 1,000 people to 1.7 cases per 1,000. In the South African area, several game parks and tourist areas no longer have high malaria incidence, and in some places the infection is now so rare that it cannot be detected by random blood sampling.
The initial work was paid for by the companies that run a huge aluminum smelter called Mozal in the center of Lubombo. It was later supported by a grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The potentially important role of large corporations in coordinating anti-malaria efforts was stressed at the White House summit.
"It is a strange coincidence that where there is oil there are mosquitoes," said Steven Phillips, a physician with Exxon Mobil Corp. The oil company has given $11.5 million for malaria control in Africa since 2000 and said Thursday it would spend $10 million more this year.
The list of speakers at the summit suggested a rising profile for malaria and efforts to fight it. In addition to the president and first lady, they included Margaret Chan, the incoming head of the World Health Organization; philanthropist Melinda Gates; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Eyitayo Lambo, Nigeria's health minister; World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz; mega-church pastor Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life"; and actor Isaiah Washington, who was the emcee.
