The point isn't to say they're not, but rather to say the nations that have been most successful at preventing malaria deaths are those that are most developed, or have access to anti-malarial drugs (which are dirt cheap).
The flu kills thousands every year and used to kill many more (the 1918 flu epidemic killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people around the world), but we don't even consider it to be fatal anymore due to our level of nutrition and medical care - which comes from development.
Also keep in mind the US used to have malaria-spreading mosquitoes and a fair amount of malaria-deaths, but now it's considered eliminated as a public health concern. Maybe some of the techniques it used could be applied to Africa, and not just band-aids that keep Africa hooked on western 'aid'.
This is absolutely nothing to do with human development.
Good health can compound problems with flu because it leads to a cytokine storm - flu epidemics tend to kill healthy young people disproportionately.
The scientific community has been extremely concerned about another influenza epidemic because there is no guarantee that we can do anything about it, medically speaking.
If there was an epidemic on that scale again, the best practice is to close schools and workplaces, to restrict travel. In other words: to temporarily stop the benefits of human development.
77% of maleria deaths are kids under 5 according to the WHO [1]. They're giving out mosquito nets to prevent children from dying of malaria.
But we don't live with malaria, so feel-good gestures are as far as we go.
For every 322 children under 5 protected by nets, one survives who would otherwise die [2]. This isn't the right thing to be cynical about.
[1] http://www.who.int/gho/malaria/epidemic/deaths/en/ [2] http://www.givewell.org/files/DWDA%202009/Interventions/Nets...
If you get it as a child, you will most likely end up with a lower IQ, though, which certainly is a lifetime affliction.
How much malaria costs when it is dormant is something I don't know. My intuition is that there is a cost (for example in a heightened inflammation response which is hard on the body) but I simply don't know.
Yes it does.
> just had it a few mild times as a kid.
Nope you have it. When you are in poor general health it will probably resurface. Good luck.
I know people who have had malaria (family that lives in a tropical 3rd world country). All survived.
Giving out mosquito nets to conquer malaria makes as much sense as giving out medical masks to conquer the flu. The answer of course is to be in good health, and to have access to medicine.
But we don't live with malaria, so feel-good gestures are as far as we go.