I found out today that tomorrow April 25th is World Malaria Day.
Did you know that Malaria is considered an epidemic? I didn't and I also didn't realized the extent to which this disease effects so many people. Here is a startling statistic I found in an article on the National Geographic website titled "Bedlam in Blood, Malaria" :
- "This year malaria will strike up to a half billion people. At least a million will die, most of them under age five, the vast majority living in Africa. "
Click here to read how $10 can save a child's life!!! Please just check it out. It is totally worth the time even if you just increase your knowledge about Malaria.
It also helped me put my personal feelings about mosquitos into perspective! Hopefully the next time I get bit by a mosquito I think twice before complaining about the temporary discomfort of the ichiness.
1 comment:
It's not uncommon to see Americans be afraid of a spider. I've never seen Americans be afraid of mosquitoes until I was in Zambia, Africa and we found out the malaria medicine we had taken was outdated and didn't work. Vaccines which kill malaria are only a couple bucks, but hardly anyone in that country can afford it or get to a doctor in time anyway. The pastors we met there would tell us how many children they had and some would include the number they had lost to malaria. Sometimes that number was larger than the number of children still living.
Very interesting article. Take time to read through it.
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