Unlike infectious diseases, malaria is not transmitted directly from person to person. The parasite needs the anopheles mosquito to spread from one victim to another. (EPA/Stephen Morrison)
Keystone
Apac district, Uganda. A young man cleans his bicycle in stagnant water - a virtual playground for mosquitos. (magnumphotos.com/Archive)
magnumphotos.com/Archive
Shohmbo, Burundi. Doctors Without Borders conducts an information campaign about mosquitos and distributes free mosquito nets. (magnumphotos.com/Archive)
magnumphotos.com/Archive
Kabale, Uganda. Farming artemisia, a plant which provides one of the most effective treatments against malaria. (magnumphotos.com/Archive)
magnumphotos.com/Archive
Ashian, 20, returns home with her baby Jen Frank Atiliop, eight months, who is infected with malaria. Unlike others, this family of Uganda's Apac district did not have a mosquito net. (magnumphotos.com/Archive)
magnumphotos.com/Archive
Apac Hospital, Uganda. A nurse checks on a child suffering from malaria. (magnumphotos.com/Archive)
magnumphotos.com/Archive
Arusha, Tanzania. Manufacturing the mosquito nets vital to saving lives. (magnumphotos.com/Archive)
magnumphotos.com/Archive
Jonice and her son Dennis, seven, under the mosquito net in their house in Ruhiira, Uganda. (magnumphotos.com/Archive)
magnumphotos.com/Archive
Spraying insecticide in Mumbai. In this Indian city, like elsewhere, mosquitos can breed in the smallest puddle of water. (Keystone)
Keystone
Apac Hospital, Uganda. A nurse checks a child's drip. (magnumphotos.com/Archive)
magnumphotos.com/Archive
Apac Hospital, Uganda. A nurse looks for a vein in a young child's head. (magnumphotos.com/Archive)
magnumphotos.com/Archive
Wheelchairs gathering dust in the hospital at Ourossogui, Senegal. In this very poor region, as in many others, malaria is a major health problem. (EPA/Nic Bothma)
Keystone
For millions of parents in the sub-Sahara, malaria is the number one scourge threatening their children. Treatment and prevention accounts for 40 per cent of Africa's total public health spending.
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However since the beginning of the 21st century, the disease has been in decline. In 2000, malaria killed an estimated one million people – ten years later, that number was down to 655,000. But while in 11 African countries the decline is more than 50 per cent, specialists insist that progress remains fragile.
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Who wants to pay to fight malaria?
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“While the anti-malarial market is huge in terms of those in need, it is small in terms of profit.” This statement by the non-profit group Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) in one of its promotional brochures may seem brutal. But it clearly shows why malaria, formerly known as marsh fever due to its associations with…
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No-one claims that the battle against the disease – which kills about one million people a year – has been won. But of the 20 or so vaccines under development, testing of RTS,S is at the most advanced stage. Some 16,000 children aged between five and 17 months are taking part in phase III clinical…
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