Every year, malaria sickens about 500 million people; more than one million of them die mostly young children and pregnant women in Africa. For several years in sub-Sahara(撒哈拉沙漠以南) Africa, the Global Fund and other groups had been paying for bed nets(蚊帐) treated long with lasting insect poison(一直由全球基金和其他组织出资提供那些长效杀虫剂处理过的蚊帐。). Malaria is speared by mosquito bites. The groups have also invested in anti-malaria drugs for ACT—Artemisinin(n.青蒿素)-based Combination Therapy. ( 这些组织也投资于抗疟疾药物开发，基于青蒿素的组合疗法。) Recently a team from the World Health Organization visited Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia. These countries were the first to distribute the bed nets and medicine. The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis ([tjʊ'bɜːkjʊ'ləʊsɪs] n.  肺结核) and malaria, requested a study to see if the interventions were helping. Research is found that the answer is yes. They looked at records of children under five. They found that malaria death fell by 66 percent in Rwanda between 2005 and 2007. Deaths felt 51 percent in Ethiopia, 34 percent in Ghana and 33 percent in Zambia. The team reported that limited supplies of bed nets could help explain the more limited effects in Zambia and Ghana. (该小组的报告指出有限的蚊帐供应可以解释在赞比亚和加纳效果有限的原因。)But the findings in Ghana were more difficult to explain, because death from causes other than malaria fell more sharply.

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The report says this was in keeping with general improvements in health services. (报告称这与健康服务的普遍改善是一致的。)The full report can be found at WHO.int on the page for the global malaria program. In another new study, researchers reported that vitamin A and zinc treatments might also help protect the young children from malaria. Scientists in Burkina Faso found that malaria reinfection rates fell by 34% in a group of children treated with vitamin A and zinc. The findings appeared in Nutrition Journal, an open access publication that can be read free of charge at NutritionJ.com. (报告出现在《营养学杂志》上，可以通过登陆nutritionj.com网站免费阅读。)Now we turn from a disease that kills a million people a year to a behavior that kills more than 5 times that many, smoking.(现在，我们来讲一种每年使100万人死亡疾病，超过疟疾5倍：吸烟。) A new report from the World Health Organization estimates that tobacco killed 100 million people in the 20^th century. And it says the number this century could reach 1 billion. We will talk more about this major report next week, and new efforts to control tobacco.