Sir, A.G. Foulkes' letter, "Anti-malaria bed nets are making a splash" (April 5), would be laughable if it did not expose the ignorance and prejudice that surrounds aid to Africa, and the fact that more than 1m children die each year of malaria in part because of our inaction.

The fact is that programmes of mass distribution of bed nets save lives in vast numbers. Repeated studies by the International Red Cross and others have verified that the vast majority of distributed nets are kept by poor households for their intended use, and that households are easily instructed in their proper use.

I doubt that any of us would let our child sleep a single night in a malarious region without the protection of bed nets and medicines, yet too many people easily repeat canards and "urban legends" at the expense of the lives of others.

Jeffrey Sachs,

Earth Institute,

Columbia University,

New York, NY 10027, US