Malaria and Children Malaria kills one child every 30 seconds. This preventable disease has reached epidemic proportions in many regions of the world, and continues to spread unchecked. African children under five years of age are chronic victims of malaria, suffering an average of six bouts a year. Fatally-afflicted children often die less than 72 hours after developing symptoms. In those children who survive, malaria also drains vital nutrients from them, impairing their physical and intellectual development.
Malarial sickness is also one of the principal reasons for poor school attendance.
Yet protection of children can often be easy. Randomised control trials conducted in the Gambia, Ghana, Kenya and Burkina Faso, for example, show that about 30 per cent of child deaths could be avoided if children slept under bednets regularly treated with recommended insecticides such as pyrethroids. Unlike early insecticides such as DDT, pyrethroids are derived from a naturally occurring substance, and will remain effective for 6 to 12 months. Malaria is also particularly dangerous during pregnancy. It causes severe anaemia, and is a major factor contributing to maternal deaths in malaria endemic regions.