In Africa, malaria kills an African child every 30 seconds. Together with HIV/AIDS and TB, malaria is one of the major public health challenges undermining development in the poorest countries in the world.

That is to say that the new medicine that has been discovered will contribute a lot in enhancing people’s health throughout the African continent.

The new drug, which is going to combat one of the leading causes of illness and death in Africa and the rest of the developing world will certainly help to find solutions to pressing local problems (agriculture, education etc).

We should not sit on our laurels. There is a need to continue to focus on improving people’s health by addressing the sources of disease in their environment, a novel method known as the ecosystems approach to human health.

Prophylactic measures should be taken in order to keep on tackling this virulent disease. Other measures include introducing biological control agents into stagnant water to destroy mosquito larvae. NGOs are then supposed to supply insecticide-treated bed nets to groups at high risk, particularly young children and pregnant women.

As such, the access to insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) is to be increased gradually. These nets, impregnated with pyrethroids have proven effective in reducing illness and deaths.  In other words, we have just won a battle, not the war.