( CNN ) -- Progress against global diseases is typically slow , incremental and hard-won . But there are moments -- such as Wednesday 's release of the World Health Organization 's World Malaria Report -- when the cumulative effort of dozens of nations , millions of people and billions of dollars adds up to a true breakthrough . With the new report , we have turned a corner in the malaria fight . We have reduced the rate of deaths from malaria among children under 5 by 51 % from 2000 to 2012 -- halfway to our goal of ending death by mosquito bite . For the first time , the number of children dying from this preventable and treatable disease fell below half a million . Progress against malaria is responsible for fully 20 % of the reduction in child mortality since 2000 . Malaria control has saved 3.3 million lives since 2000 -- 3 million of them children under 5 . This progress stands out as one of the great success stories in global health , even in human history . It 's especially impressive when you consider that malaria has been with us since the dawn of man and , by some accounts , has killed more people than any other cause in human history : more than war , famine or any other disease . Despite today 's progress , malaria remains one of the biggest impediments to saving lives , improving health and unlocking human potential in much of the developing world . It threatens 3.4 billion people -- roughly half the globe -- and is a leading cause of school and work absenteeism in sub-Saharan Africa . Malaria literally sucks the lifeblood ( energy , livelihood and productivity ) from the African continent . I often compare the malaria fight to the moonshot . Both are human milestones , measures of our progress as a species and a society . And both were made possible by U.S. vision and leadership . The seeds of today 's progress were sown under President George W. Bush with the launch of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS , Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2002 and the U.S. President 's Malaria Initiative in 2005 . These efforts have accelerated under President Barack Obama , who has expanded the initiative and recently committed to provide $ 1 to the Global Fund for every $ 2 contributed by the rest of the world , up to $ 5 billion by 2016 . These investments are paying off , not only in children 's lives saved but also in promoting stable , productive nations by keeping children in school , workers at their jobs and families financially secure . As former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently said , `` fighting malaria is not only the right thing to do , it 's also the smart thing . '' Much of the progress to date comes from expanded access to simple tools such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets , and we must maintain high levels of coverage . But how do we end the other 50 % of child deaths ? How do we ensure that no child dies from a mosquito bite and that we ultimately eradicate this disease from the planet ? The answer comes down to three cheap , revolutionary tools . The first is a rapid diagnostic test , or RDT . Until a few years ago , there was no practical way to get a timely , accurate diagnosis for malaria . If someone thought they might have malaria , they had to travel to a distant clinic that had an expensive microscope -- and a trained lab technician who would examine a drop of blood under a microscope -- and hope the doctor read it right . Enter the RDT . This simple , 50-cent device tells you in a matter of minutes with 99 % accuracy if you have the malaria parasite in your body . There are now 200 million of these tests deployed in Africa each year , and they 're transforming the fight against malaria -- driving timely treatment and ensuring people who have other illnesses -- such as pneumonia or respiratory infection -- get the lifesaving care they need . The second tool is malaria treatment : artemisinin-based combination therapies , or ACTs . It costs less than $ 1 to deliver a full course of lifesaving treatment to a child in Africa . And the simple fact is : If a child with malaria gets this $ 1 worth of medicine in time , he or she will not die . At Malaria No More , we 're helping to close the testing and treatment gaps in Africa through our new Power of One campaign , where every dollar provides a lifesaving test and treatment . The third tool may surprise you : a mobile phone . There 's a mobile revolution under way in Africa . By 2015 , there 'll be more than 1 billion mobile phones on the continent . They 're not only transforming communication and commerce but also how we fight communicable disease . Mobile is helping us solve a whole slew of problems in the malaria fight : address health facilities that have a shortage of lifesaving treatments by providing timely updates on stock levels , fight counterfeit drugs by enabling consumers to text a code to confirm a malaria treatment is authentic , expand the reach of health education to ensure people sleep under their mosquito nets and provide the real-time data on malaria cases that is the prerequisite for strategies to eliminate the disease . These tools are helping us work faster , smarter and more cost effectively . With their help -- and continued investment -- we can write malaria into the history books . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Martin Edlund .
John Edlund : New research finds impressive progress against malaria . Risk of death among children under five has been cut in half , he says . Edlund says new diagnostic and treatment options are key weapons in the fight . He says top - up American aid , from Bush and Obama , has played a key role .