Since malaria carrying mosquitoes bite at night while families are sleeping, insecticide-treated bed nets are the most effective and inexpensive way to prevent transmission of malaria.

Not only do they provide a physical barrier to mosquitoes, reducing the chances of being bitten, the bed nets are treated with insecticide so the mosquitoes are killed on contact.

The use of these nets has been shown to reduce mortality in children under the age of five by up to 20 per cent. One bed net can protect an African child for up to five years. Thousands of lives could be saved every year if all children under the age of five in Africa slept under a bed net.