GENEVA, Dec 13, 2006 (AFP) - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said on Wednesday that malaria is "collapsing" in some areas of the world as more families had access to bed nets that help prevent infection.
The Fund said that programs it finances have delivered over 18 million insecticide-treated bed nets as of December 2006, up by 135 percent from the previous year.
Malaria kills around a million people every year and at least 300 million cases of acute malaria occur each year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), although some specialists believe this to be an under-estimate.
More than 80 percent of cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa, with children under five and pregnant women at the highest risk.
"With Global Fund finance, the world has begun a massive counterattack against malaria at a scale we haven't seen for decades. In some areas, malaria is collapsing thanks to those efforts," said the international public-private partnership's executive director, Richard Feachem.
The bed nets are expected to save the lives of 371,000 children over the next three years by protecting them from infection, the Fund said in a statement.
However Feachem warned that "we have not yet reached the level and pace of progress that is needed" to fully eradicate the disease.
Later this week US President George W. Bush will hold a summit at the White House aimed at developing strategies to tackle the disease.
Participants will include African and UN officials, non-governmental organizations, and stars including South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador for malaria.
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