New bed nets could save millions from malaria deaths

A Tanzanian company has begun producing mosquito nets treated with a long-lasting insecticide with the potential to slash malarial morbidity and save millions of people, according to UN News. It said the UN Children's Fund and the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday a partnership with the Acumen Fund that enables African countries to manufacture innovative anti-mosquito bed nets. The new technology, which embeds the insecticide within the net's fibres, extends the efficacy of the bed nets from about one year to more than four years without being re-treated. Ordinary nets need to be treated at least once a year to remain effective, a requirement which has been difficult to achieve in part due to cost, availability, and custom. "The long-lasting insecticide nets are a powerful weapon for fighting malaria, which kills more than one million people annually, most of them children under the age of five," UN News reported. UN News reported that Africa accounted for 90 percent of the world's deaths from malaria. It said the transfer of the Japanese technology to an African manufacturer was made possible by an international public-private partnership aimed at greatly reducing malaria deaths. Until the Tanzanian company began producing the nets earlier in September, they were only manufactured in Asia. UN News said the production of the nets in Africa would make them more readily available to the public and strengthen the development of industry in Africa. UN News said that in addition to the human toll, malaria costs Africa US $10-12 billion annually in lost gross domestic product. "Properly used, [the nets] can cut malarial morbidity by at least 50 percent and child deaths by 20 percent," it reported Lee Jong-wook, the WHO director-general, as saying. Meanwhile, Tanzanian Minister Anna Abdallah has launched a locally produced anti-malarial drug, Radio Tanzania reported. The drug, made from a local plant, is manufactured by the Tanzania Pharmaceuticals Industrial Limited. During a ceremony launching the drug, Abdallah said the government had taken measures to encourage domestic firms to manufacture drugs from local medicinal plants.