Against Malaria Foundation

The problem

Significant progress has been made in the fight against malaria over the past two decades. According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 2.3 billion cases and nearly 14 million deaths were prevented between 2000 and 2024.^[1]

Nevertheless, the disease remains a serious challenge. Every year, approximately 282 million people worldwide contract malaria, primarily on the African continent.^[2] The disease is fatal for more than 600,000 of them.^[3] Almost 61% of the fatalities are children under the age of five—that is over 1,000 children per day. One in every eleven children who dies worldwide dies of malaria; in sub-Saharan Africa, it is even one in every seven.^[4] 

Even when the disease is not fatal, people suffer tremendously. In addition to flu-like symptoms, malaria can cause permanent visual impairment, hearing loss or epilepsy. People’s lives are worsened not only by the cost of medical care and medication, but also by the inability to attend school or work during an acute attack.

The solution

The best way to avoid malaria is to avoid being bitten in the first place. The mosquitoes that transmit malaria are most active at dusk and at night. Long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets are therefore a very reliable protection against the disease. The nets are made of polyethylene fibers. An insecticide is incorporated into these fibers in such a way that it slowly leaches out over several years.

A mosquito net thus protects in two ways: firstly, mosquitoes are physically prevented from biting humans. Secondly, the mosquitoes die on contact with the insecticide. The odorless insecticide is harmless to human health. Since 2007, the World Health Organization has recommended that insecticide-impregnated mosquito nets be distributed to every household in malaria regions.^[5] As mosquitoes in many areas are now developing resistance to the pesticides, the nets increasingly have to be treated with other active substances, meaning that the WHO recommendations are constantly being developed and adapted.^[6]

Mosquito nets are the most widely used measure for combating malaria. According to the WHO, around 3.3 billion impregnated mosquito nets have been distributed worldwide since 2004 for malaria prevention.^[7]

The nets are also very inexpensive. According to GiveWell, it costs the Against Malaria Foundation only four to six dollars to deliver a malaria net for two people—and between $3,000 and $8,000 to prevent one death from malaria.^[8]

The impact

The extraordinary effectiveness of bed nets has been proven in several studies. A 2004 meta-study found that, on average, 5.5 out of every 1,000 children who sleep under a bed net can be prevented from dying from malaria each year - a very high number considering how easy it is to distribute nets for 1,000 children.^[9]

Other studies show that pregnant women who sleep under mosquito nets give birth to healthier babies and have fewer stillbirths.^[10] In the fifteen years between 2000 and 2015, around 450 million malaria infections in Africa were prevented by mosquito nets and around 900,000 lives were saved.^[11]

The economic benefits of a decline in malaria infections are also immense: a study that measured the relationship between malaria control spending and gross domestic product in twelve African countries between 2007 and 2011 concluded that every dollar spent on malaria control increased the countries’ gross domestic product by $6.75 – an extraordinarily high figure.^[12]

The organization

The Against Malaria Foundation was founded in 2005 by Rob Mather and has since financed approximately 350 million mosquito nets. AMF has been recommended by GiveWell as a “top charity” since 2009. In addition to its outstanding impact, the organization stands out from many other charities thanks to its transparency: Against Malaria Foundation publishes its own budget in real time and also publicly states which donation was made for exactly which net .