News
Sonia Shah | 02 May 2010 | Los Angeles Times
Last week, in honor of World Malaria Day, viewers of "American Idol" were urged to donate $10 for an insecticide-treated bed net to save an African child from malaria, the mosquito-transmitted scourge that infects about 300 million people every year, killing nearly 1 million.
None | 30 Apr 2010 | guardian.co.uk
There is a river which runs through Goundry, a village in rural Burkina Faso, West Africa. Actually it's more of a stream with lots of exposed riverbed even as the rainy season finishes. And among the still pools of mustard-coloured water, if you look closely enough, you can see the darting of tiny mosquito larvae.
Alassane Karama | 27 Jan 2010 | SciDev.Net
Creatively designed bednets that are compatible with the cramped indoor lives of the poor are needed if they are not to fall out of use after a few months, say researchers in Burkina Faso.
Joe De Capua | 17 Sep 2009 | Voice of America
One of the most effective ways of preventing malaria is the use of insecticide-treated bed nets. And while most of the bed nets used in Africa are distributed for free, Africa has developed a thriving business selling them to the public.
Kakaire Kirunda | 11 Jun 2008 | Monitor (Kampala)
As the fight against malaria gains ground, studies are showing that mosquitoes that transmit the disease are beginning to gain resistance against the commonly used pyrethroid insecticides. "Generally, the results showed a trend of increase in mosquito resistance status with cross-resistance against all the three pyrethroid insecticides. This study reveals for the first time the development of pyrethroid resistance in malaria vector Anopheles gambiae s.l. in Western Uganda," according to the findings published in the Malaria Journal on May 26.
Patrick Lunda | 14 Apr 2008 | The Daily Times
AFM note: This story from Malawi highlights two important things. 1. ITN programs are not easy and must be accompanied by good information, education and communication programs. The notion that buying 1 ITN saves 1 life may be good marketing, but is not borne out in the field where malaria control is much more complex. 2. ITNs are only one intervention - indoor residual spraying (IRS) can and should play an important role in malaria control but has often been ignored by donors and malaria country governments. Although IRS is more complex and demanding than ITN delivery, this story confirms that all malaria control interventions are difficult and complex and relying on one intervention alone is unwise. It is high time that the myriad groups that raise funds for ITNs think about supporting IRS as well.
Elias Biryabarema | 13 Feb 2008 | Monitor (Kampala)
High quality mosquito bed nets, long unaffordable to millions of poor people in Uganda and the East African region could now become affordable following the commissioning of a factory in Arusha last week. The manufacturing plant will be producing 10 million bed nets a year, branded, Olyset Net. This will effectively terminate the need to import nets from Asia.
Zahira Kharsany | 12 Nov 2007 | Mail & Guardian
Life is leaking out of Madagascar. The gross deforestation of the island has left brown rivers of sand flowing towards the sea, and it has been devastated by gem mining and a high rate of malaria infections and deaths. Aids, though, is not the killer it is in sub-Saharan Africa. On a flight to Tulear, a hot and dry coastal town on the island's west coast, to witness a government roll-out of malaria-preventing mosquito nets during national "Mother and Child Health Week" from October 22 to 30, I am confronted by the beauty of the highlands in contrast to the coastal deforestation that has resulted in soil erosion.
None | 05 Nov 2007 | 2001.com (Venezuela)
Since Lare Xaviar has three children, the odds may be in her favor. If she had four, one likely would not survive. Malaria kills one in four African children under the age of 5. Though all of her children have had the disease, none have succumbed to it. "It's very scary when they have it. The first thing I do is rush them to the hospital, because they can die at any time," Xaviar said. She describes the symptoms: vomiting, severe diarrhea and high temperatures. "At night it's very scary because I don't have transportation and there's no ambulance," she said. "I only have a piece of cloth to put cold water on them to keep the temperature low until morning so I can take them to the hospital."
Hassan Karofi | 23 Oct 2007 | Daily Trust
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in collaboration with Netm-ark and the Delybim Foundation, is working to reverse malaria scourge in four selected states of Lagos, Kano, Bauchi, Benue and the Federal Capital Territory.