Anti-malaria bednet progress proves elusive
Mosquito-borne malaria remains a huge health problem in Africa
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Tuesday, 18, Nov 2008 04:00
Efforts to provide children in Africa with insecticide-treated bednets (ITNs) are proving "elusive", it has been warned.
The comment comes despite research showing a major increase in the number of ITNs seen across Africa.
Current development efforts against malaria have seen the percentage of African children under five sleeping with an ITN increase from 1.8 per cent in 2000 to 18.5 per cent last year, the study from Oxford University suggests.
This means 20.3 million people are now protected against the mosquitoes who carry malaria. Studies show transmission is reduced by as much as 90 per cent in areas with high coverage rates.
Over 89.6 million children remain unprotected, however, leaving the authors describing progress towards international targets to increase coverage to 80 per cent by 2015 as "elusive".
"Increased funding and more informed use of this funding is desperately needed to protect more children in the most vulnerable and most populated areas of Africa," they write.
Children in Africa's poorest countries are those most affected by the lack of bednets, with Nigeria accounting for a quarter of those still without an ITN alone.
The research is published in an upcoming edition of The Lancet.