About malaria

Each day robbing 3,000 children, not only of their childhood but of their lives. Crippling national economies. Spread by something as tiny as a mosquito. That’s the face of malaria.

History of Malaria

Way before we were all born – some even suggest before the evolution of humanity – malaria wrecked havoc on our world. The ancient romans and the rest of the world did not know what caused malaria, they thought it was an illness which originated from ‘bad air’ – which in Medieval Italian is “mala aria”, thus the modern name “malaria”.

In this century, we know almost everything there is to know scientifically, economically and financially about malaria (vector-borne, parasite, mode of transmission…). Which also means that we, now more than ever, are failing humanity unless we put that scientific knowledge and power to use and start turning the tide of this fatal disease that keeps millions of people impoverished around the world.

Malaria has been eradicated from certain regions in the past – North America and Europe – thus it is not mythical to believe that we can do it in other parts of the world, even if it is region by region, country by country or village by village. However, history has also taught us one crucial lesson; the fight against malaria is not one for the weak or the pessimist. For example, Sri Lanka reduced its malaria cases to fewer than a 100 a couple of decades ago, but sadly, because they could not monitor the disease and continue the fight to the end, today they find themselves back at square one.

How Malaria is Spread

Malaria is a parasitic disease which is spread though mosquito bites. The mosquito functions as a vector of the disease (Carries the parasite until it bites an uninfected person).

An important thing to note is that malaria is only transmitted in the cycle – infected person, mosquito and then uninfected person. This is why mosquito nets are great preventive tools, as they prevent mosquitoes from sucking blood from a malaria-infected human before biting a healthy child. Fewer mosquitoes infected with plasmodium leads to reduced malaria incidence (fewer humans catch the disease). Fewer infected humans also leads to even less infected mosquitoes. You guessed right, we can break the circle.

Unfortunately, that cycle is stronger than ever. It just grinds on and on. We have the knowledge and tools to break it – the question is now not whether we can. The question is how strongly we want to.

Present Status

The knowledge and facts about malaria prevention and treatment are often hopeful, gracious, yet unbearable. One humiliating data is that within the next 24 hours, 3,000 children will die from malaria – deaths you and I could certainly prevent with more selflessness, better communication and a more concerted effort. Better still, deaths we could prevent with insecticide treated mosquito nets.

Studies have shown the use of Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLINs) will reduce under-five mortality by close to 20% in most regions. In Sierra Leone, malaria accounts for about 30% of all hospital referrals and is the leading cause of mortality in children under 5 years old. Sierra Leone may be far from accomplishing the Millennium Development Goal 6 (Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other diseases) but GMin and many other partners, including you, are not ready to give up hope yet – like the world did in the past. It is puzzling that only 5% of the children under 5 in Sierra Leone sleep under insecticide treated nets (MICS 3- UNICEF). With cooperation, resources and human will, we can take great steps in eradicating, yes eradicating, malaria from one region at a time.

To join the band wagon, please look into one way or another of joining our team or read more about our past projects.