Top 10 Facts About Malaria
Dec 30
Health, Millennium Development Goals Malaria, Top Ten No Comments
GCC students set up a malaria bed net to raise awareness of malaria in their school
This month, we’ve focused on Millennium Development Goal #6: Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. As December draws to a close, GCC wanted to leave on a more upbeat note. As you’ll see with fact #10, there is reason to believe that we CAN make malaria a disease reserved for the history books. How many of these facts did you know?
- Malaria’s name is derived from “bad air,” in reference to the swampy environment in which malaria-carrying mosquitoes thrive.
- Malaria is preventable!
- Yet, over 3 billion people are exposed to malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
- Furthermore, every year, 1 million children die from malaria.
- That’s one child every 45 seconds!
- Children and pregnant women are the most vulnerable to malaria infection.
- If left untreated, malaria can leave a body more susceptible to malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, or anemia.
- So what can we do? We can distribute mosquito nets or provide treatment with anti-malaria medicine.
- Another prevention method is eliminating mosquito breeding areas or spraying homes with insecticide.
- Thanks to global action plans and key preventative measures, we’re closer to overcoming malaria than ever before in history!
