Some 80 percent of deaths from the disease are in sub-Saharan Africa. The death rate is rising and malaria is spreading to new, non-tropical countries.

Although there are great hopes for the new treatment, artemisinin combination therapy, malaria is renowned for acquiring resistance to drugs so prevention is seen as the key to combating the disease in the long-term.

The Roll Back Malaria global partnership, launched in 1998, aims to halve the burden of malaria by 2010.