Insecticide-Treated Bed Nets

Malaria remains one of the world’s most significant health and development problems. More than 2.4 billion of the world’s population residing in 100 countries or territories are at risk of malaria. This results in an estimated 300−500 million clinical cases each year, 90 % of which occur in Africa south of the Sahara Desert.1 In these high-burden areas of Africa, Plasmodium falciparum, the most dangerous species of hu-man malaria, causes the great majority of infections. In addi-tion, Anopheles gambiae, the most efficient vector of malaria, predominates throughout large areas of the Africa continent. This combination of a highly dangerous pathogen carried from person to person by a highly competent, resilient vector results in at least one million deaths among young African children each year. Malaria also challenges national authori-ties with a substantial impediment to economic development,