Mpping Malaria Incidence
With support from the Welcome Institute in the UK researchers have been mapping Malaria in an effort to understand how to limit its spread and focus limited resources more carefully. About 35 percent of the world's population is at risk of contracting deadly malaria. This new map (the first in several decades) is important in part because it offers hope that malaria could be eliminated in certain areas using currently available tools, such as bed nets treated with insecticide that kills mosquitoes, the researchers said. It will also help donors and international agencies target investments in control measures where they are most likely to achieve the biggest gains.
More than 500 million cases of malaria are reported annually. Of those afflicted, about one million die; 80 percent of them are children in sub-Saharan Africa.