Malaria funding has helped prevent nearly 1M child deaths over past decade, study finds

The results of a study (.pdf) published in Malaria Journal "suggest that funding for malaria prevention in Africa over the past decade has had a substantial impact on decreasing child deaths due to malaria," according to the study's abstract. Between 2001 and 2011, malaria prevention intervention scale-up helped prevent an estimated 842,800 malaria-related child deaths, an 8.2 percent decrease over the period had malaria intervention remained unchanged since 2000. The researchers note that 99 percent of the decline can be attributed to the use of insecticide-treated bednets. "Rapidly achieving and then maintaining universal coverage of these interventions should be an urgent priority for malaria control programs in the future," the study concludes (Eisele et al., 3/28).