Malaria kills 3,000 African children every day and drains billions of pounds from the continent's economy each year, according to a UN agency.
The parasitic disease kills more than one million people a year in Africa and has developed resistance to chloroquine - the cheapest and most commonly used treatment, said a report by the UN World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children's Fund.
Resistance is also developing to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, the drug used to replace chloroquine, it said.
But the spread of malaria can be controlled and those afflicted with the disease treated for a fraction of the £7.5 billion malaria is estimated to cost Africa each year, the report said.
The most effective treatment for malaria is artemisinin-based combination drugs, it said. Each treatment costs 60p to £1.90.
The death of new-born babies can be prevented by giving pregnant women anti-malarial drugs as part of normal prenatal care, the report said.
However, government health care spending is low in most African countries - typically less than £9.50 per person a year, the report noted.
Malaria is transmitted by mosquitos. Draining puddles and other stagnant water - the breeding ground of the insects - around dwellings can reduce its spread, the report said.Sleeping under nets treated with insecticides can cut transmission by more than half, it said.
PA