US President George W Bush has unveiled a new plan to hand out millions of bed nets, to defend Tanzanian children aged one to five from the mosquitoes that spread malaria.
As part of his six-day Africa tour, Mr Bush met with mothers and children at Meru District Hospital outside Arusha, Tanzania, today.
A bed net ‘is one of the simplest technologies imaginable, but it's also one of the most effective’ to combat malaria,' Mr Bush said.
With his top diplomat on a day-long peace mission in neighbouring Kenya, the US president focused on what he called a ‘campaign of compassion’ in Tanzania, the second leg of a five-country swing through Africa.
‘Today, I'm pleased to announce new steps in the bed net campaign,’ Mr Bush said at the hospital, before going to visit the nearby factory that manufactures the insecticide-treated nets, at the rate of 10m a year.
‘Within the next six months, the US and Tanzania, in partnership with the World Bank and the Global Fund, will begin distributing 5.2 million free bed nets," he said.
The US president has used his visit - which began in Benin on Saturday, and will take him to Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia before he heads back to Washington - to highlight US-African cooperation to battle disease and poverty.
Malaria remains the number one cause of death among children under five in Africa. The UN World Health Organisation estimates that 1.2 million people die of the disease every year, mostly children.
According to the Roll Back Malaria campaign, using the insecticide-treated net – now sold in 25 African countries - cuts the chance of catching malaria in half.
