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    Malaria

    Malaria: Preventable, curable, and still here.

    Malaria is preventable and curable, yet it still takes young children's lives, mostly in Africa. The tools that stop it are proven. What's missing is the money to reach everyone with them.

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    Ryan K. Hertel · heyitskenton

    The problem

    What we're up against.

    • Mostly in Africa, mostly children.

      Malaria killed an estimated 610,000 people in 2024. The WHO African Region had 95% of those deaths, and children under five were about 75% of the deaths there.

    • Mosquitoes and parasites are adapting.

      Mosquitoes resistant to pyrethroid insecticides have been confirmed in 48 countries, making treated nets less effective. Resistance to malaria drugs has been confirmed or suspected in at least 8 countries in Africa.

    • The money falls short.

      In 2024, the world put $3.9 billion into fighting malaria: less than half of the $9.3 billion the global strategy set as its target for 2025.

    What works

    Proven, and ready to grow.

    • Bed nets.

      Across trials, insecticide-treated nets cut child deaths from all causes by 17%, saving 5.6 lives a year for every 1,000 children protected.

    • Medicine for the malaria season.

      Giving children antimalarial medicine through the malaria season prevents about three quarters of clinical malaria episodes, even where nets are widely used. It reached 54 million children in 2024, up from about 200,000 in 2012.

    • Vaccines, at last.

      When the first malaria vaccine was piloted in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, deaths among children old enough to get it fell by 13% because of the vaccine. 25 countries in Africa now offer malaria vaccines to children.

    What a family could fund

    Where the money goes furthest.

    • Nets, at a known price.

      GiveWell puts the cost of a net at about $6, and its grants to the Against Malaria Foundation at about $5,500 for each life saved.

    • Seasonal medicine, for less.

      Malaria Consortium's seasonal medicine costs about $7 to protect a child, and about $4,000 for each life saved, by GiveWell's estimate.

    • What one grant buys.

      GiveWell's largest grant, $276 million, pays for 92 million nets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which it expects to avert roughly 67,000 deaths. A family's initiative could fund grants on that scale.

    • Vaccines, waiting on funding.

      There are now enough malaria vaccines to meet demand, but most countries are giving them below their own targets for lack of funding.

    • More good to do than money to do it.

      GiveWell, which vets these charities, says its near-term needs far surpass what it expects to raise.

    Honest limits

    What money can't promise.

    • The best evidence on nets is old.

      The trials behind the nets' results ran from 1987 to 2001. Since then, mosquitoes have grown more resistant to insecticides. Newer nets protect better than the old kind.

    • Not every net is extra.

      GiveWell thinks 46 million of that grant's 92 million nets would not otherwise be handed out. Honest counting asks what would have happened anyway.

    • Saving a life will cost more.

      GiveWell's prices are averages from recent grants, and it generally expects the cost to save a life to increase over time.

    • Proof is getting harder to gather.

      Recent cuts to international aid have disrupted health systems, weakened routine tracking of malaria, and canceled or postponed most planned malaria surveys, the WHO says. That makes independent proof harder, and more important.

    Hard questions

    Asked and answered.

    1. You might ask

      Doesn't handing out free nets stop people buying their own?

      Ryan

      The evidence points the other way. In a randomized pricing experiment in Kenya, a one-time subsidy made people more willing to pay for a net a year later.

    2. You might ask

      If mosquitoes keep adapting, won't this stop working?

      Ryan

      It's a real risk, so the plan doesn't rest on one tool. Newer nets protect better than the old kind and are becoming more widely available. Seasonal medicine works even where nets are already in use, and vaccines add another layer.

    3. You might ask

      Isn't this a job for governments?

      Ryan

      Partly, and the money for malaria still came to less than half of its target. A family's initiative fills a gap that is there right now, through charities that are independently vetted.

    In the slider

    See what your fortune could do here.

    Malaria

    The slider prices this cause with these numbers:

    • About $5,500 saves a life with bed nets: GiveWell's estimate for the Against Malaria Foundation.
    • The whole need is every life malaria takes in a year, 610,000.
    • An average from recent years. At a far larger scale each life would cost more, so the count never passes the yearly toll.
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    More of the Blueprint

    Keep reading.

    23 more chapters on the way

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    Sources

    Every number in this chapter, and where it came from.

    1. Source 1: Malaria: fact sheet (opens in a new tab)

      World Health Organization, 4 December 2025. Checked 15 October 2026.

      Deaths in 2024, the latest year counted.

    2. Source 2: New tools saved a million lives from malaria last year but progress under threat as drug resistance rises (opens in a new tab)

      World Health Organization, 4 December 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Released with the World malaria report 2025.

    3. Source 3: Insecticide-treated nets for preventing malaria (Pryce, Richardson and Lengeler) (opens in a new tab)

      Cochrane, 6 November 2018. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A systematic review of randomized trials; the figure for deaths pools five of them.

    4. Source 4: Administering antimalarial drugs to prevent malaria in children during the malaria transmission season (Meremikwu and others) (opens in a new tab)

      Cochrane, 1 April 2022. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A systematic review of seven trials, all in West Africa. They were too small to show a clear effect on deaths.

    5. Source 5: Malaria vaccines (RTS,S and R21) (opens in a new tab)

      World Health Organization, 4 February 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Questions and answers. The drop in deaths comes from pilots of the first vaccine, RTS,S, in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi from 2019 to 2023.

    6. Source 6: Our Top Charities (opens in a new tab)

      GiveWell, September 2025. Checked 15 October 2026.

      Averages for grants made from 2022 to 2024: the Against Malaria Foundation's bed nets, and Malaria Consortium's seasonal medicine.

    7. Source 7: Announcing Our Largest Grant to Date (opens in a new tab)

      GiveWell, 24 August 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Co-funded by Coefficient Giving, for nets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2027 through 2029. The deaths averted are GiveWell's estimate.

    8. Source 8: Scaling Our Impact, with Support from a $1 Billion Commitment (opens in a new tab)

      GiveWell, 23 July 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    9. Source 9: How Much Does It Cost To Save a Life? (opens in a new tab)

      GiveWell. Checked 16 October 2026.

    10. Source 10: Short-Run Subsidies and Long-Run Adoption of New Health Products: Evidence From a Field Experiment (Dupas) (opens in a new tab)

      Econometrica, 2014. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A randomized pricing experiment with bed nets in Kenya.