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A simple solution led to one of the most stunning medical achievements of our time

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Insecticide-treated bed nets are one of the simplest and most effective ways to prevent malaria. Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Fifteen years ago, the World Health Organization rallied the world to reverse the global increase in malaria by 2015. Now we've reached that goal. 

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Malaria deaths have decreased by almost half since 2000, according to a new WHO report released Dec. 9.

That's a stunning public health achievement. We've finally begun beating back a disease that's been called "one of the world’s most intractable human afflictions" — and the simple bed net is one of the key reasons for this success.

Today, 214 million people catch malaria from an infected mosquito, and 438,000 people die from the disease every year. Almost half of the world's population is still at risk of getting malaria. 

But that risk is steadily decreasing. Since 2000, three simple interventions have prevented approximately 663 million people from contracting malaria, and saved 6.2 million people from dying from the disease. 

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An analysis published Sep. 16 in the journal Nature noted that insecticide-treated bed nets, insecticides sprayed on indoor surfaces, and prompt treatment with combination drug therapy collectively helped reduce the spread of malaria throughout a large swath of sub-Saharan Africa.

Insecticide-treated bed nets resulted in the largest reduction, accounting for 68% of the cases prevented, according to the Nature study. Bed nets are widely considered a cheap and effective intervention; approximately 900 million such nets were distributed in sub-Saharan Africa between 2004 and 2014.

Spraying insecticides and quickly administering what's called artemisinin-based combination therapy to treat malaria accounted for 22% and 10% of cases reduced, respectively. The study authors noted, however, that these numbers don't reflect the effectiveness of one method over another, but rather how widespread their use was.

The overall drop in cases — from 2000 (on the left) to 2015 (on the right) — is staggering:

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Red and yellow show higher infection prevalence among children aged two to 10; blues show fewer infections. Malaria Atlas Project, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

The reduction can be partially attributed to the efforts of Roll Back Malaria, a partnership of over 500 organizations including the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the World Bank. For example, the partnership has conducted 70 campaigns distributing free treated bed nets to all households in areas with malaria since 2000, according to a WHO/UNICEF report.

children playing in bed nets malaria mosquito nets
Jianan Yu/Reuters

Today, approximately 60% of all children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa, where the most malaria cases and deaths occur, sleep under insecticide-treated nets.

But there's still more work to do. 

That encouraging stat also means that many, many children still don't sleep under a bed net or in a house treated with insecticide, according to the WHO. And the parasite that causes malaria is gaining resistance to some of the best drugs used to treat the disease, including artemisinin. 

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The Roll Back Malaria partnership has a goal to reduce malaria incidence and mortality by 90 percent in the next 15 years.

To accomplish this, the new WHO report estimates that global funding for combating the disease will have to increase from the $2.7 billion that's spent today to $8.7 billion in 2030. 

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