 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Malaria is caused by a parasite spread by infected mosquitoes. The World Health Organization, in its latest estimate, says the disease caused 781,000 deaths in 2009. Most of those deaths were in children in Africa. Worldwide, there were 225 million cases of malaria. Both of these numbers represent improvements. In 2000, there were an estimated 233 million cases of malaria and almost a million deaths. Malaria remains a major problem in Africa. But there have been some successes. Deaths in Rwanda, for example, have been reduced by 60%. There are still no vaccines to prevent malaria. The main way for communities to control the disease is by controlling mosquitoes. In a recent study, researchers in West Africa have shown that spraying insecticide indoors can greatly reduce malaria transmission. The fight against malaria has two main targets, the parasite itself and the mosquito that carries the parasite. Insecticides target the mosquito. But over time, the insects develop resistance to the chemicals. This has been happening with current mosquito killers, including chemicals known as pyrethroids. Gilles Germain Padineau and other researchers in Benin tested another insecticide. This one is called Bendeocarb. They tested it with indoor spraying at sites throughout Benin. There were fewer mosquito bites in home sprayed with Bendeocarb. More importantly, none of the 350,000 people who lived there got malaria-infected mosquito bites during the test. Piper Hotez heads the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, which published the research. He says, this is what this Bendeocarb is all about, showing that it's efficacious, at least in this setting in Benin, in a real, live field setting. So it provides a potentially good alternative where there's been high development of resistance to pyrethroids. Dr. Hotez says the effectiveness in the test does not mean all malaria programs should use Bendeocarb or that indoor spraying should be the only method used. We're going to have to throw multiple things out there in order to see what the optimal combination is to achieve control. Bendeocarb is widely used against a number of different insects. The insecticide is considered relatively safe when used as directed. For VOA Special English, I'm Carolyn Presuti.