Based on the new results, Dr Kochi reckons that a five-year campaign costing about $10 billion would be enough to bring malaria under control in most of Africa, reducing the death rate to a matter of thousands a year.
This graph was featured in the Economist this week, along with an article discussing the successes (drops in cases and death rate) of a fairly straightforward insecticide-impregnated net distribution program through the World Health Organization and funded by the Global Fund on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Combined with the introduction of a new medication derived from wormwood, the drops in deaths have been drastic in the four countries studied (Rwanda, Ethiopia, Zambia and Ghana*). The Economist article was interesting in that it focused on the approach of providing free nets through mass distribution programs. The writers alluded to a common belief that free services are less effective than ones in which people are charged a small fee because free items are disregarded more easily (this is true when we discuss the provision of health care in the U.S. as well). This program contradicts that theory, and is particularly relevant in this situation as the insecticide in these nets are only effective for about 3-5 years and will need to regularly be replaced as long as the disease still exists in a community. It’s an investment which will need to be maintained, and it’s reassuring to see that as far as low-cost to funders, free to communities, one-off mass interventions go, this seems to be an effective one.
*Drops in deaths in Ghana were lower, as you’ll read in the article, but this was matched with a corresponding overall drop in deaths in children from other causes.
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