Preventing childhood malaria in Africa by protecting adults from mosquitoes with insecticide-treated nets.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Malaria prevention in Africa merits particular attention as the world strives toward a better life for the poorest. Insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) represent a practical means to prevent malaria in Africa, so scaling up coverage to at least 80% of young children and pregnant women by 2010 is integral to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Targeting individual protection to vulnerable groups is an accepted priority, but community-level impacts of broader population coverage are largely ignored even though they may be just as important. We therefore estimated coverage thresholds for entire populations at which individual- and community-level protection are equivalent, representing rational targets for ITN coverage beyond vulnerable groups.

Methods and findings

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SUBMITTER: Killeen GF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1904465 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature