Malaria No More’s mission is simple: to end deaths due to malaria.
Saturday, July 26th, 2008
Malaria No More is a nonprofit organization located in New York, NY that aims to end deaths caused by malaria in Africa. It was founded in 2006 at the first ever White House Summit on Malaria by leading non-governmental organizations such as American Red Cross, Unicef, Global Business Coalition, United Way, Millennium Promise, The Global Fund, and the United Nations Foundation.
With prevention and treatment methods, the United States was able to eradicate malaria by 1951 with the establishment of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In the 21st century, however, the disease is still endemic to 106 nations, threatening 50% of Earth’s population. It claims almost one million lives per year in Africa, and 3,000 lives of children per day. The hardest hit population are children under 5 living in poverty. The lack of money to buy bed nets and treatment combined with the humid, tropical environment preferred by mosquitoes and the malaria parasite put people in Africa at an enormous risk for contracting and dying from this treatable disease. It isa chief reason that of 20% of Zambian children die before age five.
In Kenya, approximately 90 people die daily from malaria. Said a Uganda doctor to Dr. Mark Grabowsky of the CDC and the Global Fund, “If you get rid of measles, we can close the measles ward. If you get rid of malaria, we can close the hospital,” illustrating the enormity of the problem of malaria. It is the one of the most deadly and prevalent diseases in Africa, yet also the most preventable and treatable.
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