What Can be Done to Prevent Malaria?

Many different approaches have been taken to prevent the cycle of disease and mortality from malaria:

Control of mosquitoes by eliminating stagnant water where they can breed and using pesticides such as DDT
This was the basis of targeted malaria control efforts in the past. While helpful as part of a control strategy in some areas with low transmission (such as Washington DC!), this has not been effective in heavily infested areas due to emergence of pesticide resistance, inability to dry or coat all potential breeding areas, and concerns about environmental and health impact of powerful insecticides.

Limiting the chances for human exposure to the infected mosquito
This is done through community-based intervention with window screens, bednets, and treated bednets. Some trials have demonstrated the effectiveness of such barrier methods at preventing severe disease and mortality, particularly in children. There have been regional variations in effectiveness, however, raising concerns about best methods for implementation, as well as sustainability. Efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of such interventions, especially over the long term, are ongoing.

Prevention of disease through prophylactic use of antimalarial drugs
This can be effective, particularly for travelers that will be exposed to mosquitoes for a defined period of time. If used on a community level, however, the parasite has shown the ability to develop resistance to the more commonly used drugs. This limits the ability to treat disease when it occurs and makes it even harder to control malaria.

Prevention of human disease through use of vaccines
This is the goal of MVI. Scientists around the world have searched for a safe and effective malaria vaccine for several decades. It has proven to be a difficult challenge, due to the complexity of the organism (it has more than 6000 genes, as compared to a dozen for some viral infections), its ability to change through its life cycle both in the human and in the mosquito, and its ability to hide from the immune system.