Malaria Fight Moves Beyond Bed Nets

For many years, prevailing wisdom said that mosquito nets where the best way to combat malaria, but a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) has changed that. WHO's latest recommendations include spending more money on anti-malarial drugs and indoor spraying.

At the UN Integrated Regional Information Network meeting in Ouagadugou, Stephan Tohon, WHO focal point on malaria in West Africa, told the agency, "For the control of malaria vectors, we had previously recommended the use of mosquito nets, but today the experience of some countries in southern Africa with indoor house spraying - containing the once-banned insecticide DDT - has yielded positive results. This is very important to beat malaria and it is going to contribute to controlling mosquitoes not only in bedrooms, but in houses and verandas." WHO officials point to the staying power of DDT, which clings to the walls and continues to kill mosquitoes long after the initial spray. After being banned 30 years ago because of environmental fears, DDT is being used again after recent reports found the risks to minimal.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released a report on October 17 detailing the production and distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, which doubled between 2004 and 2006, but WHO maintains that bed nets are an inefficient way of dealing with the malaria threat.

WHO is encouraging the international community to help provide Artemisin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) drugs. $400 million has been pledged to combat malaria in West Africa, but according to WHO officials that won't be enough. "With the support of the international community, we could bring the cost of medicine down and we are even encouraging countries that this medicine should be given for free because malaria is a disease of the poor and it is important to note that people are not getting medicine because they do not have money," said Wilson Were, medical officer with the malaria case management office at WHO-Africa in Congo-Brazzaville.

Of the 17 countries that WHO covers, only 11 have switched to ACT, even though all of the countries have agreed to switch from the older drug chloroquine, which is less effective than the newer treatments. "We need partners to come on board and support some of these countries and mobilize these resources because they cannot continue using drugs which are not working,"said Were.

Malaria is endemic in 15 countries in West Africa, and 42 per cent of inpatient deaths in Liberia were due to malaria.

Source: UN IRIN Press Release