Studies show that the use of long-lasting insecticide treated nets can reduce malaria transmission by as much as 90% in areas with high coverage.
Malaria-carrying mosquitoes generally bite between 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. Bed nets hung over the center of a bed or sleeping space so as to completely cover the sleeping person create a protective barrier against these mosquitoes at night.
One bed net, with proper use and care, can safely last a family about four years.
Prevention
Malaria prevention requires an integrated approach. The basic interventions for protection against malaria are insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor residual spraying (IRS), preventative treatment for pregnant women, and ACT treatment.
Insecticide Treated Nets repel, disable, or kill mosquitoes that come into contact with the insecticide on the netting material, protecting those who sleep beneath the net from infection.
Indoor Residual Spraying is a vector-control mechanism that involves spraying safe amounts of insecticide on the interior walls of residences to repel mosquitoes. It is estimated that when a dwelling is sprayed with a chemical that is 70% effective, out of 100 mosquitoes that would have entered, bitten, escaped, and survived:
- 70 are repelled and do not enter
- 21 enter, become irritated, and exit without biting
- 6 enter, bite, and die
- 3 enter, bite, escape, and survive
Preventative Treatment for Pregnant Women involves intermittent treatment with an anti-malarial drug during pregnancy. Pregnant women have low immunity to malaria, and the threat of becoming infected and ill is two to three times higher than for non-pregnant women.
ACT Treatment, or artemisinin-based combination therapies, use a combination of drugs in order to fight the development of resistance to anti-malarial medications.
Using these four tools, 25 countries have already successfully reduced malaria deaths by more than 50%, including four in Africa. After years of stagnant and increasing child deaths, recent data show a 28% drop in the under 5 mortality rate over the past 7 years. WHO and UNICEF attribute much of this progress to significant scale-ups in combined malaria control efforts.
Community engagement and education also plays an enormous role in malaria prevention. Volunteers who have an on-the-ground understanding of local culture can help educate community members on how to hang and use bed nets, how to repair them properly, and why interventions such as using the nets, IRS, and taking preventative healthcare measures are so important.