Mortality in a seven-and-a-half-year follow-up of a trial of insecticide-treated mosquito nets in Ghana.

A 17% efficacy in preventing all-cause mortality in children aged 6-59 months was previously reported from a cluster-randomized controlled trial of insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) carried out in the Kassena-Nankana District of northern Ghana from July 1993-June 1995. A follow-up until the end of 2000 found no indication in any age group of increased mortality in the ITN group after the end of the randomized intervention. These results should further encourage the use of ITNs as a malaria control tool in areas of high endemicity of Plasmodium falciparum.