Every year, malaria （疟疾） sickens about five hundred million people. More than one million of them die, mostly young children and pregnant women in Africa.

For several years in sub-Saharan Africa, the Global Fund and other groups have been paying for bed nets treated with long-lasting insect poison. Malaria is spread by mosquito bites. The groups have also invested in ant malaria drugs for A.C.T., artemisinin-based combination therapy.

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（肺结核）and Malaria requested a study to see if the interventions were helping.

The researchers found that the answer is yes. They looked at records of children under five. They found that malaria deaths fell by sixty-six percent in Rwanda between two thousand five and two thousand seven. Deaths fell by fifty-one percent in Ethiopia, thirty-four percent in Ghana and thirty-three percent in Zambia.

The team reported that limited supplies of bed nets could help explain the more limited effects in Zambia and Ghana. But the findings in Ghana were more difficult to explain, because deaths from causes other than malaria fell more sharply. The report says this was in keeping with general improvements in health services.

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 young children from malaria. Scientists in Burkina Faso found that malaria rainfection rates fell by thirty – four percent in a group of children treated with vitamin A and zinc.

The findings appear in Nutrition Journal, an open access publication that can be read free of charge at nutrition. com.

1．Which is probably the most useful in fighting malaria according to the passage?

       A．Bed nets.                                            B．Medicine.

       C．Vitamin A and zinc treatments.               D．Killing mosquitoes.

2．Why did a team from the World health Organization visit the African countries?

       A．To help the African countries to fight malaria.

       B．To identify whether their effort to fight malaria was effective.

       C．To study which people tend to be infected with malaria.

       D．To study what measures can be taken against malaria.

3．What can be concluded from the passage?

       A．Malaria only appears in Africa.

       B．Malaria is no longer a threat to African countries.

       C．The researchers are disappointed with the result of the study.

       D．People all over the world are trying to treat malaria.

4．Which one summarizes the passage best?

       A．A Success Story for Malaria Control in Africa

       B．Malaria in Africa

       C．Say No to Malaria

       D．How to Treat Malaria