I read an article on malaria recently in National Geographic. I was not aware of how horrible this disease is until I read this article and I was blown away by the statistics on this terrible and deadly epidemic. In Africa alone, the article said that a child dies every 5 seconds, that's 3,000 every day and there are over a million people who die from this every year. While malaria is found in many parts of the world, and was even present in our own nation over 50 years ago, Africa is the one place where they can't seem to get a good handle on it and it is one of the few epidemics that has actually gotten worse over time. Science and the medical field usually jump on epidemics like this to put a stop to them. In the past in our country we used a chemical called DDT to wipe out malaria and they used this in many other parts of the world, but somehow got put to a stop before it reached Africa. Now that we have more knowledge of this chemical (DDT) and it's effect on peregrin falcons and their offspring, we don't use it for the sake of the birds and environment. I just want to be extremely clear that I don't know all of the complications of malaria and chemicals like DDT, I have only read one article on it....BUT, IF we are choosing not to use DDT to preserve bird life over human life, because of its effect on the environment and on birds, then we live in a pretty sick and inhumane world. But like I said before, I am far from being an expert. In Africa they are also doing things like giving malaria meds, which apparently have lost some of their effectiveness because the mosquito has grown immune to it. Sometimes even the most simple thing like sleeping under a mosquito net with insecticide on it will help reduce the risk of malaria by a significant amount. I write all this because I hope that we can help the people in Africa to be rid of this horrible sickness once and for all and I hope we never turn our back on people who are hurting and dying just because it is in a far off distant land and it doesn't affect our own comfortable suburban American lives. What can we do? I don't have a clue, but I do know that I am going to read and learn and listen and hopefully get off my hiny and at least try something.
3 comments:
I heard this NPR report on malaria-resistant mosquitoes on which scientists are working. It boggled my brain a bit, but it's an interesting idea, for sure.
I'm sure that once we are in Uganda, we'll hear/see more about malaria outbreaks firsthand, so I'll let you know what we find out and how you can help back in America.
You need to blog about something else because I don't like seeing that picture every time I check. We are covered with mosquito bites and it's giving me the creeps.
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