Nairobi — The number of East Africans protected from malaria through bed nets is set to rise dramatically following the release of $336 million by the Global Fund for the purchase of the protective items for five countries.

The release of the money, announced by the Fund on November 6, will enable Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Nigeria to purchase more than 50 million long-lasting insecticide-treated nets to be distributed free to vulnerable communities.

Global Fund-supported prevention programmes have so far distributed 88 million such nets throughout the world, about 68.5 million of these in Africa.

The new nets will therefore raise the number by two-thirds.

Of the new nets, 26 million will be given to Nigerians, 11 million to Ethiopians and 7.3 million to Ugandans.

Tanzanians will get 4.8 million nets while one million will be given to Kenyans.

These bed nets will help prevent millions of cases of malaria over the next few months alone," said Prof Michel Kazatchkine, the executive director of the Global Fund in a statement.

"We are now at a point where reaching global targets for malaria is no longer fanciful but something that can actually be achieved."

In Kenya, use of the nets in malaria high-risk areas such as Nyanza and the Coast, as well as the roll-out three years ago of free malaria treatment in public hospitals with highly effective artemesinin-combination medicines, has been cited as the main cause of the reduction of malaria deaths for children under five years from 35,000 a decade ago to 15,000 last year.

The nets are recommended by World Health Organisation because they remain effective against malaria-carrying mosquitoes for at least three years.

WHO and other malaria experts however insist that bed nets are only one component of a malaria programme incorporating such other initiatives as indoor spraying and accessible treatment.

Since its inception, the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has committed $16 billion in 140 countries to support large-scale prevention, treatment and care programmes against the three diseases.

According to the Fund, its support for programmes against the diseases has saved four million lives over the past decade -- or 3,000 lives everyday.