A new report finds malaria control programs have saved hundreds of thousands of lives during the past decade. The World Health Organization, which has just published its World Malaria Report 2010, says malaria deaths could end by 2015 if the gains being made are maintained.
WHO says results from malaria control programs during the past two years have been spectacular.
The report says that between 2008 and 2010, enough insecticide-treated mosquito nets have been provided to protect more than 578 million people at risk of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.
In addition, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the number of people protected from malaria by indoor residual spraying rose to 75 million, or 10 percent of the population at risk, in 2009.
Dr. Chan says each country that eliminates malaria benefits all others, but most especially, its immediate neighborhoods.
The World Health Organization says it is extremely hopeful that clinical trials of a new vaccine – known as RTS,S – will prove successful. It says phase three clinical trials of the vaccine are taking place in 11 sites in seven different African countries. 
It estimates that 16,000 infants will have been tested by the time the full trials end in 2014.
The World Health Organization says funding for malaria control programs, until recently, has been very good. Unfortunately, it says, contributions this year have leveled off and the amounts pledged fall far short of needs.
To maintain progress in the fight against malaria, it says more than $6 billion is required.
(Source: VOA News)