World Malaria Day is coming up on April 25th and I just wanted to make mention of a few things.
Malaria is caused by a tiny parasite carried and transmitted by mosquitoes from human to human. The parasite invades cells – liver, blood. It reproduces and destroys at an alarming rate. It can cause high fevers, eye pain, headache, body ache, enlarged liver, seizures, coma, and death. Africa see the most cases and the most deaths, but the disease is throughout the tropics. There are 3000 children that die each day due to malaria. One every 30 seconds. There are up to 500 million cases per year. One million of these will die. Bednets, spraying, education, prevention, testing, and early treatment are all key to decreasing deaths.
We usually see around 100 cases per month, but this varies depending on the season. When we first started out here, we would see over 200-250. Though there is a decrease, it is still present, still a fear, and still deadly. We can do testing for $1 and the treatment is about 50 cents. Despite this, we still hit obstacles at times. I would love to know that we have testing supplies and medications for every malaria victim that comes to us seeking care for the coming year. That would be $150 per month or $1800 for the year. It might not seem like a big deal to some, but I guarantee just this small amount could save many lives here.
Here are some more malaria facts.
Here a video about malaria and maternal & child health.
Some more great info.
There are many other organizations that you can become involved with to eliminate this killer.
Please do what you can to help eradicate this preventable and treatable disease throughout this month. Educate yourself. Tell others. Save lives.