bed nets

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September 14, 2010 | 9:08 AM | By

Prevented Malaria Deaths Made Visible

Voice of America

Nets distribution in Niger

One of the problems with saving lives is it’s hard to identify a death averted. Success in disease prevention is often invisible.

You typically can’t say, for example, that 380 cases of malaria, and one death, were prevented in African children for every $1,025 spent on insecticide-treated bed nets last year.

Except now you can.

A new report published by Roll Back Malaria has applied a sophisticated new analytical method known as the Lives Saved Tool (LiST) to measure the number of lives saved over the last few years by anti-malaria efforts in Africa. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Science, Africa, bed nets, Johns Hopkins University, malaria, PATH, World Health Organization
August 18, 2010 | 12:35 AM | By

Study: Foreign Aid for Anti-Malaria Bed Nets Works

Mosquito net

Flickr, by Prezius

Mosquito net

Insecticide-treated mosquito nets can prevent malaria infection, no question.

Getting people to use them as intended is another thing. Reports of people in African communities using them to catch fish, make fences or for other creative purposes has prompted some to claim bed net distribution is not effective for fighting malaria and is misguided if not counterproductive.

Others contended the nets should be sold, rather than donated, so recipients value them.

A new study by the UW’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has found that African countries who have received major support for bed net distribution are using them as intended and many more children are being protected from malaria.

Bottom line, said IHME director Dr. Chris Murray: “More money means more children sleeping under bed nets.”

FILED UNDER: Health, Science, bed nets, health metrics, malaria