Friday, January 11, 2008

Performance Metrics - Child mortality reduced by 25%

Dear Colleagues

The best performance metrics are easy to understand. Most of the performance metrics in the academic literature about mosquito and malaria control are difficult to understand.

At the present time, the long lasting insecticide treated bednet is the most popular of malaria control interventions. It lends itself to simple comments along the lines of "Bednets save lives" ..."Donate $10 and save a life" ... etc.

But the data that are available are much less convincing.

One report, which I was under the impression was making the case for bednet use, has the conclusion that "With substantial bednet coverage, under 5 child mortality is reduced by 25%".

According to widely quoted WHO data, there are some 3,000 child deaths every day in Africa from malaria.

Does this therefore mean that with substantial bednet coverage there will be 2,250 child deaths every day instead of 3,000? I would have thought that this is a failed idea ... and would be totally unacceptable if the program was being offered in Europe or North America.

What am I missing?

Peter Burgess
The Tr-Ac-Net Organization

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