Two children receive bed nets in Kisumu, Kenya Photo: Scott Chacon (flickr)

Malaria-related deaths in Kenya have dropped by 75 percent over the last five years, according to a recent study in the Lancet. In 2005, government clinics offered subsidized insecticide-treated bed nets along the most infected areas of the Kenyan coast. The following year they distributed anti-malarial drugs free of charge.

Despite these efforts, Kenya is now witnessing an increase in a severe form of the disease known as "cerebral malaria." Few children survive cerebral malaria. They experience coma and convulsions and are left with permanent neurological problems such as weakness, spasticity, blindness, speech problems and epilepsy.

Malaria is one of Africa's biggest child killers. The UN estimates Africa has approximately 300 to 500 million preventable malaria infections leading to over one million preventable deaths — 75 percent in children less than 5 years old. In economic terms, malaria costs Africa $12 billion each year due to deaths and loss of productivity.

Millions of sick children miss out on education that could help them escape poverty, while parents of sick kids end up losing work days and income, depriving families of basic necessities and being unable to afford treatment.

The best way to prevent any form of malaria is to prevent infection in the first place. According to the Lancet authors:

"Emphasis on use of insecticide-treated bed nets, early treatment, and other control measures must be increased to maintain reductions in disease burden and prevent a potential resurgence of malaria in a population with far less immunity than before."

In a region where malaria kills one child every 30 seconds and most people live on less than $1 per day, a failure to curb malaria is something Africa cannot afford.