JCI joins the
battle to fight malaria in Africa
Malaria kills one child under the age of five
every 30 seconds.
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In the poorest parts of the world, where effective window screens
are lacking, insecticide-treated bed nets are arguably the most cost-effective
way to prevent malaria transmission. One bed net costs just $10 (€8) to buy and
deliver to individuals in need. One bed net can safely last a family for about
four years, thanks to a long-lasting insecticide woven into the net fabric.
Studies show that use of insecticide-treated bed nets can reduce transmission
as much as 90% in areas with high coverage rates.
Bed nets prevent malaria transmission 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 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. A bed net is usually hung above the
center of a bed or sleeping space so that it completely covers the sleeping
person. A net treated with insecticide offers about twice the protection of an
untreated net and can reduce the number of mosquitoes that enter the house and
the overall number of mosquitoes in the area.
Currently,
nets are treated with pyrethroid insecticides. These
insecticides have very low levels of toxicity to humans, but are highly toxic
to insects. By repelling the mosquitoes, a bed net can protect other people in
the room outside the net. When enough nets are used in an area, the insecticide
used in the net fabric makes entire communities safer even for those
individuals who don’t have nets.
Malaria is a disease caused by the blood parasite Plasmodium,
which is transmitted by mosquitoes. Infected humans experience flu-like
symptoms that can result in coma and death. Malaria, from the Medieval Italian
words mala aria or “bad air,” infects more than 500 million people a year and
kills more than a million— one person dies about every 30 seconds. The disease
is particularly devastating in Africa, where it is a leading killer of
children. In addition to being home to the deadliest strain of malaria and the
mosquito best equipped to transmit the disease, many areas in Africa lack the
proper infrastructure and resources to fight back.
The disease is a self-perpetuating problem with large-scale impact
on societies and economies. Malaria accounts for up to half of all hospital
admissions and outpatient visits in Africa. In addition to the burden on the
health system, malaria illness and death cost Africa approximately $12 billion
a year in lost productivity. The effects permeate almost every sector. Malaria
increases school absenteeism, decreases tourism, inhibits foreign investment,
and even affects the type of crops that are grown.
Malaria is Both Preventable and Treatable
Malaria is both a preventable and treatable disease. It can be
prevented by giving families and individuals insecticide-treated bed nets to
sleep under and taking steps to kill mosquitoes where they breed and when they
enter houses to feed at night. At the same time, anti-malarial drugs such as artemisinin and other combination therapies that are widely
available can treat malaria before it becomes deadly.
Malaria has been brought under control and even eliminated in many
parts of Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Yet in Africa, with increasing drug
resistance and struggling health systems, malaria infections have actually
increased during the last three decades.
Bed Nets
Despite the magnitude of the problem, there is a simple and
cost-effective solution to prevent malaria deaths. For just $10 (€8), we can
purchase a bed net, deliver it to a family, and explain its use. Bed nets work
by creating a protective barrier against mosquitoes at night, when the vast
majority of transmissions occur. A family of four can sleep under an
insecticide-treated bed net, safe from malaria, for up to four years. The
benefits of bed nets extend even further than the family. When enough nets are
used, the insecticide used to deter mosquitoes makes entire communities
safer—including even those individuals who do not have nets.
Although $10 (€8) for a bed net may not sound like much, the cost
makes them out of reach for most people at risk of malaria, many of whom
survive on less than $1 a day. Nets are a simple, life-saving solution, but we
need your help to provide them to those in need.
Anti-Malarial Drugs
Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the most effective drugs
currently available for treating malaria. Less expensive ACTs need to be
developed and strategies to deliver them need to be implemented and evaluated
so that the therapies can be accessed by the people who need them. Artemisinin-based combination therapies are also used to
help pregnant women 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 prenatal 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 birth weight in infants, which causes about 100,000 infant
deaths annually in Africa.
Killing Mosquitoes through Indoor Residual
Spraying
While bed nets are generally effective in Africa wherever they are
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). IRS kills female mosquitoes when they rest on sprayed
surfaces after feeding on a person, reducing malaria transmission to others.
Only female mosquitoes can transmit malaria. In 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 not be applicable in some areas.
Life-Saving Facts
·
For just $10 (€8) we can
buy a bed net, distribute it to a family, and explain its use.
·
Insecticide-treated bed
nets can keep a family safe for up to four years.
·
Nothing But Nets has
partnered with the Measles Initiative to deliver the nets to even the most
hard-to-reach areas of Africa.
Other Facts & Historical Anecdotes about
Malaria
·
Only female mosquitoes
can transmit malaria.
·
Malaria’s etymological
roots are in the Italian language, and “malaria” translates literally as “bad
air,” a reference to the early belief that the disease was caused by breathing
the stale, warm, humid air found around swamps.
·
Four Nobel prizes have
been awarded for work associated with malaria to Sir Ronald Ross (1902),
Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran (1907), Julius Wagner-Jauregg
(1927), and Paul Hermann Müller (1948).
·
Two important, currently
used anti-malarial drugs come from plants whose medicinal values have been
noted for centuries: artemisinin from the Qinghao plant (Artemisia annual, China, 4th century) and
quinine from the cinchona tree (South America, 17th century).
*FACT CHECKED BY THE US CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
(CDC)
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