Kenya cut child deaths from malaria by more than 40 percent over five years by handing out insecticide-treated mosquito nets, UN and Kenyan officials

Kenya cut child deaths from malaria by more than 40 percent over five years by handing out insecticide-treated mosquito nets, UN and Kenyan officials said Thursday. Experts hope to replicate the success throughout Africa. An estimated 700,000 to 2.7 million people die of malaria each year, 75 percent of them African children, and tens of millions of people suffer chronically from the debilitating disease, even though it is preventable and curable. Over the past five years, Kenya gave out 13.5 million treated nets, and the percentage of children sleeping under them rose to 52 percent in 2006, from 5 percent in 2003, the health ministry said in a statement. Health Minister Charity Ngilu said Kenya's program saved seven children for every 1,000 mosquito nets used. "This is value for money," she said. "Definitely this is [a] good investment." The Kenyan program followed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines that nets should be distributed free or heavily subsidized to everyone, as opposed to the earlier practice of giving children and pregnant mothers priority, WHO said in a statement. "We now have evidence that recent massive scaling up of malaria control interventions such as insecticide-treated nets has dramatically reduced child deaths due to malaria by 44 percent in malaria risk areas," Ngilu said. (Washington Post, August 16)