World can’t abandon fight against malaria
Over the past two decades, the fight against malaria has been among the biggest success stories in global health. Campaigns to prevent and treat infections, particularly in Africa, have saved an estimated 11 million lives since 2000, the vast majority of them young children. Yet that progress has recently stalled — and in some countries, new cases are surging again. At least part of the blame lies with flaws in the most widely used tools for fighting the mosquito-borne disease: bed nets.
More than 3 billion insecticide-coated bed nets have been distributed worldwide in the past 20 years. At just $5 a net, they’re responsible for 68 percent of the reduction in malaria cases since 2000, according to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. One study found that sleeping under bed nets increased babies’ chances of survival in malaria-prone regions by 27 percent.
Those lifesaving gains may now be at risk. As a Bloomberg News investigation reveals, the declining efficacy of bed nets has contributed to an alarming spike in malaria infections. In Papua New Guinea, where malaria cases rose 88 percent in 2022, researchers found that nets made before 2012 were all effective in killing or incapacitating mosquitoes. But only 17 percent of those manufactured in the past decade did the same.
The reason? Vestergaard, the Swiss company that produces PermaNet 2.0 — which has been used in Papua New Guinea and more than 100 other countries — switched to a cheaper coating researchers say rendered the insecticide less potent, but it didn’t inform the World Health Organization of the change until at least 2017. Despite concerns raised by scientists and aid workers, the company still hasn’t acknowledged the waning efficacy of the product, which remains prevalent in poor countries. Governments have also reported defects with nets made by Vestergaard’s competitors, including some that were too small, lacked durability or had insufficient amounts of insecticide. (In a statement to Bloomberg News, Vestergaard said the changes made to its nets adhered to the WHO’s efficacy standards.)