[Special Issue News] Zambia fights to sustain its malaria success

Zambia has been a poster child for progress against malaria. Between 2006 and 2011, donors invested more than $300 million into the country to combat the disease. Zambia was the first country in Africa to adopt artemisinin combination therapy to treat malaria. More than 24 million insecticide-treated bed nets were distributed to protect against the mosquitoes that transmit the disease. Screening for the disease was scaled up. The efforts paid off, with dramatic drops in malaria cases and deaths in parts of the country. But those gains are fragile, malaria experts warn, and if attention is diverted, they could well be lost. Author: Kai Kupferschmidt
Source: Science: This Week - Category: Science Authors: Source Type: research