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You are watching UNICEF television.

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Walk into any children's ward in Sierra Leone and you'll find a room full of anxious mothers

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watching their sickly sons and daughters struggling to survive.

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And more often than not, all the children will be battling the same deadly disease, malaria.

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Marie Forna has already lost one child to malaria,

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and now her youngest daughter Rachel has cerebral malaria,

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the most virulent strain of the killer disease, and it's clinging on to life.

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It is a terrible disease. She has only been ill for two days.

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Look how helpless she is already. I am really scared.

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Stagnant water and untreated sewage are the perfect breeding ground for a host of serious illnesses,

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as well as for malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

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While malaria is also rife in rural areas,

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years of war and neglect have turned the poorest urban districts into death traps,

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especially for children, who regularly use the rubbish-choked streams as toilet, shower and playground.

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The result? One of the world's highest mortality rates for children under five,

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mainly from preventable diseases, with malaria accounting for almost 40% of all these deaths.

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But there are signs that the situation is changing,

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and that greater emphasis is now being put on the prevention of malaria,

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rather than simply concentrating on the cure.

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Insecticide-treated bed nets have long been regarded as the first line of defence,

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since they drastically reduce the risk of contracting malaria.

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Sponsored by UNICEF, the distribution of nets will gradually expand to every district in the country,

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supplying mosquito-proof shelter for tens of thousands of vulnerable women and children.

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With some families already benefiting from the bed nets, malaria rates are slowly starting to fall.

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Indeed, in some communities, the nets have proven so effective that their use is now enforced by law.

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Obviously, bed nets are just part of the answer.

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They can reduce malaria, but not eradicate it,

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especially in a poverty-stricken country like Sierra Leone,

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which cannot afford the vast sums needed to tackle the real, dirty water sources of the disease.

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But more efficient diagnoses and more effective drugs,

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as well as enhanced access to treatment, are also starting to make a difference.

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Few children are actually dying of malaria complications,

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because now people are having access to health care,

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and when it is there, they actually report to their facilities within the first 24 hours after illness,

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so the deaths due to malaria basically is decreasing according to our records.

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But still obviously a massive challenge.

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Indeed it is.

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And so is survival for little Rachel, whose life is hanging by a thread.

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All her mother can do is comfort her, and hope that she will not be the latest to die from this deadly,

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but preventable disease.

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This is Richard Lee in Sierra Leone, reporting for UNICEF Television.

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Unite for Children.