by SONIA SHAH
The treated nets are effective despite design flaws. But to better combat diseases of the poor, we should empower the very people affected to devise their own solutions.
Last week, in honor of World Malaria Day, viewers of “American Idol” were urged to donate $10 for an insecticide-treated bed net to save an African child from malaria, the mosquito-transmitted scourge that infects about 300 million people every year, killing nearly 1 million.
The premise behind the idea of treated nets is simple. The netting prevents malarial mosquitoes from biting people while they’re asleep, and the insecticide kills and repels the insects. World health experts say that using the nets can reduce child mortality in malarial regions by 20%.But even as donations roll in and millions of bed nets pile up in warehouses across Africa, aid agencies and non-governmental organizations are quietly grappling with a problem: Data suggest that, at least in some places, nearly half of Africans who have access to the nets refuse to sleep under them.
Sonia Shah for more