Report: Nets and drugs curb malaria deaths

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- The use of mosquito nets and modern medicine in many African countries has drastically reduced malaria-related deaths, a report said.

The World Health Organization's report showed Ethiopia and Rwanda had more than a 50 percent drop in malaria-related deaths during the recent study, The New York Times reported Friday.

"We saw a very drastic impact. If this is done everywhere, we can reduce the disease burden 80 to 85 percent in most African countries within five years," Chief of Malaria for the World Health Organization Dr. Arata Kochi said of Thursday's report.

The study monitored the success of four countries' programs that distributed mosquito nets impregnated with insecticides to families with children younger than 5 years of age, and medication that contained a Chinese drug, artemisinin, to public health clinics.

The report is said to be intended for offering strong proof of malaria research, which has been hard to find in some areas because of improper diagnoses and less than sufficient hospital records.