The findings from Rwanda and Ethiopia are the first to show a greater than 50 percent reduction in malaria mortality nationwide in "high burden" countries.
Malaria is responsible for 2 percent of all deaths worldwide and 9 percent of deaths in Africa. Each year, about 1.1 million deaths -- almost all in children -- are directly attributable to the disease, and at least a million more occur from complications such as severe anemia. In Africa, where most cases occur, malaria costs $12 billion a year in medical expenses and lost productivity.
Two key items in the current "tool kit" are bed nets treated with insecticide that lasts as much as five years, and treatment with at least two drugs, one of them artemisinin, a compound derived from a Chinese herbal medicine.
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