Half of the people on Earth today are at risk of contracting the disease malaria carried by mosquitoes. And close to one million people, mainly children in Africa, die of the disease each year, according to the World Health Organization. There are some exciting new breakthroughs, and the first is that we now have some new drugs that are very effective against the most severe form of malaria. He said that it might be possible, with a combination of new drugs and other measures, to eliminate malaria worldwide by 2050. The new class of drugs based on Artemisinin, a compound, is now combined with a whole raft of other drugs. And this type of therapy is very, very effective. Breman added that bed nets, treated with insecticide, offer personal protection against the mosquito that carries malaria. And an exciting new development is that we now have textile chemistry allowing the insecticide to be woven into the threads and they last up to five years.