ETHIOPIA BEGINS NEW ANTI-MALARIA CAMPAIGN

Ethiopia's government has launched a major initiative against malaria, the leading cause of death in the country, at the start of the annual transmission season. Malaria infects 9 million Ethiopians each year and can kill more than 100,000, mostly young children, within just a few months during an epidemic. The peak of the annual transmission season is October to November.

The three-pronged program will cost at least $140 million over the next three years and is being supported by the UN, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Bank and several foreign governments and public agencies.

Under the campaign the distribution of insecticide-treated malaria nets is being expanded drastically. The country will also start treating the majority of malaria cases with the drug Coartem, which has a 99 percent success rate, compared with the 36 percent rate of the currently used drug, Fansidar. Health posts around the country are also being supplied with cheap diagnostic test kits that can detect serious malaria cases within minutes.