A new study suggests 58% of the decline in infant mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa is due to insecticide-treated mosquito nets. It also suggests that the decline has accelerated over the last few years.

A study published in Malaria Journal suggests "that funding for malaria prevention in Africa over the past decade has had a substantial impact on decreasing child deaths due to malaria." The study tries to quantify the impact on malaria mortality over the past decade (2001-2010) resulting from the scale-up of malaria prevention intervention. It says that "ITNs accounted for 99% of the lives saved." and recommends that "rapidly achieving and then maintaining universal coverage of these interventions should be an urgent priority for malaria control programmes in the future."

 You can view both the abstract and the paper online.

Someone recently asked us, "Are we winning the fight against malaria?"

Yes, but we are at a critical time now and funds must accelerate so we do not lose the gains made over the last few years.

A picture I can paint for you is to imagine the fight against malaria as walking along a conveyor belt. The good news is the conveyor belt has an end in sight. Compare that to some humanitarian issues, like HIV/Aids and TB, where the end of those conveyor belts cannot be seen or at least they are in the very far distance.

So, there is an end in sight for the fight against malaria, albeit 10+ years away. Now, the conveyor belt is moving against us.

In the last five or so years we have started to make good 'net' (ie positive) progress along the conveyor belt - even though it is moving against us

One measure of this progress is the growth in the number of nets distributed over the last few years. In 2005, globally, 5 million nets were distributed. In 2010, that number was 130 million nets. Good progress. Malaria deaths and the number falling ill both fell. But remember the number of nets needed per year is of the order of 250 million so we are only half way there at best. The issue we now face is malaria funding, while still not enough, is coming under pressure and we already seeing, for example, significant drops in funding to the Global Fund who are one of the organisations through whom governments around the world channel significant funds against malaria.

This is where the analogy with the conveyor belt is a useful one. If the funding is reduced we can start going backwards on the conveyor belt and it is possible we go back to where we were four years or so ago. Think of this on a micro level, ie at the community level, and think about a village that has received. What happens when the nets are at the end of their useful life and new ones are needed? If we don’t have the funds, we cannot replace them and malaria can build again and to the levels we saw pre nets.

That is why funding for nets is so important so we do not lose the gains we have made over the last five or so years: we do not want to go backwards on the conveyor belt. Instead, we want to keep moving forwards so in the next 10 years or so malaria is brought under control - across Africa and elsewhere. 

A recent article in the Lancet, which uses a new way of estimating the number of deaths due to malaria, concludes that 1.24 million people died from the disease in 2010 - much higher than previously recognised.

You can read more about the article on the BBC News site and Against Malaria Founder Rob Mather was interviewed by BBC 5 Live this morning. You can hear the interview via the mp3 link: Malaria interview 5 live.mp3 (7.63 mb). There is also a breakdown of the data on the Guardian website.

Elise Johnson, a student at North Central High School, and now at Stanford University, talks on national radio in the US about her experience distributing nets in Senegal: http://soundmedicine.iu.edu/segment/3062/Malaria-Nets-for-Africa

The Global Fund (for Aids, TB and Malaria) has cancelled all Round 11 grants, ie for programmes from mid 2012, as they do not have the money to fund them. This is very worrying for the fight against malaria. Good progress in malaria control has been made in the last five years. Higher levels of net coverage have helped achieve a fall in malaria cases and deaths. We must keep up that momentum as it offers the best chance, and the real possibility, of malaria being brought under control with the dramatic reduction in the number of people who fall sick or die from malaria that can bring.

More info: The Guardian

From the Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report 

Reasons For Caution About Experimental Malaria Vaccine
"Writing in KPLU's "Humanosphere" blog, Tom Paulson responds to last week's announcement of results from an ongoing clinical trial of an experimental malaria vaccine, saying, "Despite the hype and fanfare, many experts at the Seattle meeting said this experimental vaccine (known as RTS,S) actually so far represents only incremental progress -- a scientific achievement which may still turn out to have little practical utility in the real world." Paulson says "the findings largely repeat earlier 'interim' results"; the cost of the vaccine, which has not yet been confirmed; and difficulty developing a malaria vaccine that offers an acceptable level of protection are reasons why the vaccine may not be successful (10/25)." The Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report is published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. 2011 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Other commentators also point out the need to continue using proven methods to combat malaria

All those working to defeat malaria hope the vaccine does prove to be a significant weapon in the fight against malaria.

Update: New England Journal of Medicine Editorial 

Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Executive Director of the 'Roll Back Malaria' Partnership, has just given an interview stating that malaria has moved from being the largest cause of infant mortality to the third largest in Africa, although this differs in many countries and regions.

Read more here.