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UNC study: Insecticide-treated bed nets reduce infant deaths in Democratic Republic of Congo
September 03, 2009CHAPEL HILL - Giving insecticide-treated bed nets to nearly 18,000 mothers at prenatal clinics in the Democratic Republic of Congo prevented an estimated 414 infant deaths from malaria, a study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers concludes.
The bed nets cost about $6 each. When costs for transporting and distributing the nets and educating people how to use them are factored in, it cost just over $411 per infant death prevented. In addition, the intervention prevented an estimated 587 low birth weight deliveries, which in turn reduced long-term disability.
"This is an extremely cost-effective intervention," said Sylvia Becker-Dreps, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of family medicine in the UNC School of Medicine and lead author of the study, which is published in the September 2009 issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
"In fact, it approaches the cost effectiveness of measles vaccination and is far more cost effective than prevention measures that are routine in the U.S."
The study stems from a project Becker-Dreps worked on while pursuing her Master of Public Health degree in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Andrea K. Biddle, M.P.H., Ph.D., an associate professor in the Gillings School, was one of her mentors on the project and is one of the study's co-authors, along with three other Gillings School faculty.
In the project, study co-author Frieda Behets, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School, helped 28 clinics in Kinshasa, the capital and largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, implement a program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. As part of that program, 17,893 pregnant women were given long-lasting, insecticide-treated bed nets for free.
Malaria, which is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, is common among pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa and is a major contributing factor to low birth weights and infant deaths in that region. "The goal of this study," Becker-Dreps said, "was to find out the costs and impact of giving bed nets to pregnant women in prenatal clinics, before their babies were born. The pregnant women could then use the bed nets during their pregnancies to reduce preterm deliveries and then use it to protect their young infants after birth."
Questionnaires administered to the mothers found that 84 percent reported sleeping under the bed net every day or almost every day, six months after delivery. Interviewers who visited a sample of the mothers reported that 70 percent had their bed nets hanging in the correct position in their homes.
Becker-Dreps and colleagues combined this data with actual infant mortality and low birth weight data from clinics in the region and then performed statistical analyses that enabled them to produce their estimates. They concluded that bed net distribution is a cost-effective addition to prenatal services in the region.
Co-authors of the study, in addition to Becker-Dreps, Biddle and Behets, include Audrey Pettifor, Ph.D., Steven Meshnick, M.D., Ph.D., all from the Gillings School; and Gertrude Musuamba, M.D. from the School of Public Health in Kinshasa and David Nku Imbie, M.D., from the Salvation Army in Kinshasa.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"In fact, it approaches the cost effectiveness of measles vaccination and is far more cost effective than prevention measures that are routine in the U.S."
The study stems from a project Becker-Dreps worked on while pursuing her Master of Public Health degree in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Andrea K. Biddle, M.P.H., Ph.D., an associate professor in the Gillings School, was one of her mentors on the project and is one of the study's co-authors, along with three other Gillings School faculty.
In the project, study co-author Frieda Behets, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School, helped 28 clinics in Kinshasa, the capital and largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, implement a program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. As part of that program, 17,893 pregnant women were given long-lasting, insecticide-treated bed nets for free.
Malaria, which is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, is common among pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa and is a major contributing factor to low birth weights and infant deaths in that region. "The goal of this study," Becker-Dreps said, "was to find out the costs and impact of giving bed nets to pregnant women in prenatal clinics, before their babies were born. The pregnant women could then use the bed nets during their pregnancies to reduce preterm deliveries and then use it to protect their young infants after birth."
Questionnaires administered to the mothers found that 84 percent reported sleeping under the bed net every day or almost every day, six months after delivery. Interviewers who visited a sample of the mothers reported that 70 percent had their bed nets hanging in the correct position in their homes.
Becker-Dreps and colleagues combined this data with actual infant mortality and low birth weight data from clinics in the region and then performed statistical analyses that enabled them to produce their estimates. They concluded that bed net distribution is a cost-effective addition to prenatal services in the region.
Co-authors of the study, in addition to Becker-Dreps, Biddle and Behets, include Audrey Pettifor, Ph.D., Steven Meshnick, M.D., Ph.D., all from the Gillings School; and Gertrude Musuamba, M.D. from the School of Public Health in Kinshasa and David Nku Imbie, M.D., from the Salvation Army in Kinshasa.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Bed Nets Current Events and Bed Nets News RSSPrioritizing low-cost, simple health measures would save 2.5 million child lives a year
Almost a third of the children under age five who die each year could be saved if governments rebalance health spending to ensure low-cost, simple interventions such as safe water and hygiene, bed nets and basic maternal and newborn care, leading aid agency World Vision said today. Currently, 8.8 million children a year die before age five, most of preventable causes.
UM School of Medicine researchers find extreme genetic variability in malaria parasite
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) have charted the extreme genetic differences that occur over time in the most dangerous malaria parasite in the world.
Decade-long US project to fight malaria builds thriving African mosquito net industry
In a decade-long initiative to protect millions of families from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, a U.S. government-funded project helped sell 50 million bed nets in seven countries, crafted a voucher system to allow the poor to receive them for free or partial cost, and created enough incentives for private companies that they invested $88 million to expand their businesses.
Evolution-proof insecticides may stall malaria forever
Killing just the older mosquitoes would be a more sustainable way of controlling malaria, according to entomologists who add that the approach may lead to evolution-proof insecticides that never become obsolete.
Dramatic fall in malaria in the Gambia raises possibility of elimination in parts of Africa
The incidence of malaria has fallen significantly in The Gambia in the last 5 years, according to a study carried out by experts there with support from scientists based in London.
Malaria Millennium Development Goal 'unlikely to be met'
The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria globally is unlikely to be met, according to Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow Professor Bob Snow.
With annual deaths from malaria on the rise: Scientists ask 'where is all the money going?'
A new study in the April issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, asks the question "With more than $220 million dollars dedicated to malaria treatment and prevention, why is the annual mortality rate from malaria on the rise" The study, entitled "Malaria Vector Management: Where Have We Come From and Where Are we Headed"" conducted by researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, examines the current methods used to control and prevent the spread of malaria.
First malaria map in 40 years shows extent of disease burden
The first global malaria risk map to be developed in forty years has highlighted the 2.37 billion people at risk from one of the world's deadliest diseases.
First global malaria map in decades shows reduced risk
About 35 percent of the world's population is at risk of contracting deadly malaria, but many people are at a lower risk than previously thought, raising hope that the disease could be seriously reduced or eliminated in parts of the world.
Huge proportion of maternal deaths worldwide are preventable
A study published in PLoS Medicine this week suggests that of women who die during pregnancy and childbirth in sub-Saharan Africa, more may die from treatable infectious diseases than from conditions directly linked to pregnancy.
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