Plan has helped achieve 98 per cent bed net coverage for children in Kita, Mali - one of the most powerful tools in preventing malaria.

Malaria continues to be the biggest killer of children in Africa, responsible for more than one million child deaths each year.

One of the most powerful tools for malaria prevention is bed nets treated with insecticide to ward off the night-biting mosquitoes that transmit the most deadly forms of malaria.

Getting treated bed nets to children and pregnant women in rural Africa, and encouraging them to sleep under these nets is one of the greatest public health challenges Plan faces in Africa.

Remarkable success

In Kita, about three hours from the Malian capital Bamako, Plan and its partners recently recorded a remarkable success. Four years ago, when Plan started an intensified program to improve child survival in Kita, less than four per cent of children in the district slept under a treated bed net.

Last month, a survey carried out by independent researchers among 392 randomly selected households in villages surrounding Kita found that all but two per cent of children under five had slept under a correctly treated bed net in the night preceding the study.

Dr Souleymane Bagayoko, Plan's health adviser in Mali, said:

"This is a remarkable result, rarely achieved anywhere in Africa. Already, the local health centres are reporting a dramatic decline in consultations for children with fever. This shows that malaria in Africa can be beaten."

Plan's partnerships have been key to the success. In the district of Kita, plan works with UNICEF which provides bed nets to health centres for free distribution to young children and pregnant women.

Plan supports volunteer community committees in charge of health centre administration. We also support members of two local organisations who visit homesteads to promote healthy practices and provide advice on bed net use.