Malaria :: Number of insecticide-treated nets available to African households needs to be increased

John M. Miller, M.P.H., of the Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership in Africa (MACEPA) at PATH, Lusaka, Zambia, and colleagues conducted a study to estimate how many insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) are available in African households that are at risk of malaria and how many ITNs are needed to reach targets for use by children younger than 5 years and pregnant women.

They found that, in data reflecting 43 sub-Saharan African countries for 2003, the average proportion of households possessing at least 1 ITN was 6.7 percent; an estimated 16.7 million ITNs were available in households at risk of malaria. Between 130 million and 264 million ITNs are required in 2007 to reach the 80 percent coverage target for about 133 million children younger than 5 years and pregnant women living in 123 million households in risk areas.

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