Malaria costs sub-Saharan Africa an estimated $12 Billion a year.

ITNs indirectly boost the economy, the world economy.

Making Economic Sense in a Global Economy

Malaria is a local economic issue. When parents are sick or have to care for sick children, the whole community loses. When rates of malaria are cut, more crops get planted, tended and harvested. More people show up at work and are productive when they are there. More people get paid and have money to spend. The lives of children improve, too, as more parents have more time for their children. The community benefits from freeing the energies of its citizens from malaria's deadly clasp.

Malaria costs sub-Saharan Africa an estimated $12 Billion a year. ITNs lower malaria rates by 50%. Full coverage of targeted population (under 5's and pregnant women) would cost well under $500 million in one go and less than $100 million per year when stretched over time. A small dent in the $12 Billion cost would pay back any investment many times over.

Providing Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) has several Paybacks.

Trade--Providing Insecticide Treated Nets sets off an entire ECONOMIC cycle, a virtuous cycle, with extraordinarily high Returns On Investment. The cycle and seeing the ROI helps the poorest people and the economies as a whole. The effect of ITNs trickles UP. Insecticide Treated Nets give a multi-billion dollar economic boost to the entire area, probably the biggest 'bang for the buck' of any economic aid around. Booming economies boost trade. Sick people don't make enough money to buy our goods. Medicine and nets are cheap ways to build markets and productive partnerships.

Economic Self Defense (And Disaster Prevention)--In February 2004 cases of Asian Flu knocked several billion dollars of value out of the Asian markets. Preventing 'Economic Ebola' makes intensely good financial sense. A single nasty bug could take trillions out of the economy overnight. Hence, providing health care is a financial necessity for us. If the experts think 9/11 was bad, financially, imagine several million investors trying to liquefy their portfolios faster than ebola liquefies someone's organs. THAT'S a sight that turns the stomach of the most heartless financial analyst.

Disease Prevention - the real Domino Theory--We can kill the bugs in their back yards for pocket change. Or try to kill them in our own back yards, at the cost of billions. We have a Window of Opportunity. If we don't take care of this now, who knows what the next little bug will do to us? If we DON'T take care of THEIR health care system, their bugs arrive in our systems. Look at West Nile, SARS, Asian Flu and HIV/AIDS. How much are they costing us? What's next?