LONDON , England -- Malaria is preventable and curable , yet every 30 seconds , a child in sub-Saharan Africa dies from the disease , according to the World Health Organization . The Roll Back Malaria partnership has pledged money for nets , anti-malarial treatments and research for a vaccine . Last year on April 25 , the World Malaria Day initiative was launched to raise awareness of the disease and efforts to control malaria around the world , as part of the Roll Back Malaria partnership -- a global group of non-governmental organizations ( NGOs ) and governments . The groups behind Roll Back Malaria set ambitious goals to ensure universal access to malaria medication and treated mosquito nets in Africa by the end of 2010 . They also announced plans to attain near zero malaria-related deaths by 2015 . According to the WHO , the malaria currently kills one million people every year . As the second World Malaria Day approaches , how successful has the Roll Back Malaria partnership been in its aims ? Certainly , in the past two years , rapid progress has been made in malaria control , including a 60 percent decrease in malaria-related deaths in some countries such as Ethiopia and Zambia , according to figures from the WHO . Richard Feachem is director of the Global Health Group , an organization launched to design malaria control programs in developing countries . Writing in the medical journal Lancet , he said : `` Overall , we have many reasons to be optimistic . `` Except for those countries that are politically dysfunctional or suffering major conflicts , the 61 malaria control countries in the heartland will make great progress in reducing death and sickness from malaria over the next 10 years . '' `` The challenge now is the implementation gap between political commitment , ambition , and availability of funds , and the capacity at ground level to do the work that needs to be done . '' The Roll Back Malaria partnership 's profile has also been raised by the surge of new NGOs such as Malaria No More , and their partnerships with international celebrities . Footballer David Beckham and actor Ashton Kutcher recently lent their support to the cause . Earlier this month , Kutcher won a Twitter race against CNN to reach one million followers . The actor pledged 10,000 mosquito nets to Malaria No More , if he beat CNN , and 1,000 if he lost . CNN agreed to do the same . CNN 's founder Ted Turner 's United Nations Foundation has also donated $ 2 million to deliver insecticide-treated bed nets to more than 630,000 people in African refugee camps . `` Since last year , we have achieved enormous progress in many countries by donating money , assistance and monitoring progress , '' executive director of Roll Back Malaria , professor Awa-Marie Coll-Seck , told CNN . Read our malaria A to Z guide . And last week , the partnership decided on a new plan to subsidize anti-malarial medication in 11 African countries at first , where one treatment dose now costs $ 10 in the private sector , more than many Africans earn in a week . `` We will negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to make them reduce the price of anti-malarial medication '' said Coll-Seck , a former Senegalese Health Minister . As a result , the price of medication will be expected to drop to at least a tenth of its current price . To achieve all its goals , Coll-Seck says the partnership needs $ 5 billion . They have already received $ 2 billion from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS , Tuberculosis and Malaria , the United States Presidential Malaria Initiative -- launched by President Bush in 2005 -- and foundations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation . `` I think that achieving zero deaths by 2015 is a very ambitious goal , '' Awa explained , `` but I believe at least several countries will be able to achieve it . On a global scale , we still need progress . '' Janet Hemingway , CEO of the Innovative Vector Control Consortium at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation , believes the Roll Back Malaria partnership was right to strive for such ambitious targets . `` We have to strive for these goals '' she told CNN , `` because unless they set these goals , we 're never going to achieve them . `` Now it 's up to us on the ground to make them happen . ''
As World Malaria Day approaches , many are optimistic about ending malaria deaths . In the past two years , rapid progress has been made in malaria control . The number of people who have died from malaria worldwide dropped by more than half between 2000 and 2010.