Malaria causes up to half a million deaths every year.
In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) recorded 219 million cases of malaria and 435,000 deaths globally. Younger populations are particularly susceptible: according to UNICEF, malaria kills a child in Africa every two minutes, and 61 percent of malaria deaths are children under the age of five. Pregnant women and their unborn children are also vulnerable to malaria, which can cause low birth weight and maternal anemia in addition to mortality — a big part of why TAMTAM prioritizes the populations we do. Even if malaria victims survive, they face a long road to recovery, often suffering devastating learning impairment and permanent brain damage. For these reasons, malaria remains a major obstacle to economic prosperity. Official estimates put malaria’s economic yearly cost at $12 billion, meaning that on average, afflicted countries lose out on 1.3 percent of GDP growth every year.
Public health experts and officials have long agreed that prevention through near-universal use of long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets is the best way to prevent and control malaria. Bed nets create a protective barrier against mosquitoes at night, when the vast majority of transmissions occur, and can last for up to four years. Bhatt et al. (2015) estimated that bed nets prevented over 450 million cases of malaria between 2000 and 2015. Complementing that work, a randomized study by Jessica Cohen and Pascaline Dupas, two founders of TAMTAM, found that the most effective way of distributing nets is to hand them out for free, a practice adopted by most organizations in the field and governments today. Additionally, preventive health care facilities distribute most of our nets, providing an additional incentive for vulnerable populations to get health care checks.