I take the point about nets as a short/medium term solution but the evidence from a recent report from Kenya indicates that they do work.

I had already posted a piece on this topic in my personal news so maybe the best way of contributing here is to simply paste the relevant section here.

In my personal news I said:

Who remembers the debate in The Other Place over the proposal to fund Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) in the battle against malaria ?

The debate went round and round with some voices even challenging the use of treated nets at all and the case for garlic as an alternative to ITNs also led to heated debate ... well, I got heated. ;)

So it was interesting to read yesterday that the UK government through our Department for International Development acted in partnership with the WHO to fund free nets in Kenya.

AND

Early results from the Kenyan programme ..... show that in some areas the number of childhood deaths from malaria has fallen by 44%. Three hospitals in the malarial-prone coastal areas reported a drop in admissions of 57% in 2006, compared with 1999.

So, while we discussed and debated in The Other Place good old fashioned straightforward targeted aid saved lives !!

Maybe there's a moral there somewhere. Maybe not. But it certainly is good news.

You can catch up with the full story in The Guardian