Malaria is entirely preventable and an integrated package of malaria control interventions that focuses on relatively simple but proven solutions can greatly reduce the suffering. Most malaria-carrying mosquitoes bite at night and Insecticide-Treated Nets (ITNs), if properly used and maintained, provide a cheap, safe and effective protective barrier, with the potential to reduce infant mortality by 20%. A net treated with special insecticides offers about twice the protection of an untreated net, and through its presence can also protect other people in the room, even if outside the net as the mosquito dies having rested on the net. Advances through long-lasting insecticide-treated net (LLIN) technology mean a net can retain its protective capacity for three years or more without re-treatment.

 

In addition to ITNs, it is sometimes appropriate to use specialized teams to spray an insecticide on the inside walls of houses – known as Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS). This helps kill the mosquitoes, thereby reducing malaria transmission to others. 

 

Prevention efforts for pregnant women include administering at least twice during pregnancy single doses of antimalarials during routine antenatal clinic visits; this is known as Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPT). IPT helps protect pregnant women from possible death and anaemia and also prevents malaria-related low birth weight in infants which causes some 100,000 infant deaths annually in Africa.

 

Information and education are key for prevention efforts. Education campaigns are crucial, focussing on how to make proper and consistent use of ITNs, on how to recognize the illness in a child and know what measures to take, how to protect pregnant women and unborn children, and the importance of indoor residual spaying where it is used.