World Malaria Day

World Malaria Day is an international holiday on April 25th every year in order to share information and educate world governments, local communities and people about malaria and the global efforts to control it.

Freedom from Malaria

During history, malaria is one of the most serious diseases around the world. And it has always been one of the deadliest species, despite being wiped out in many parts of the world.

There are hundreds of thousands of people died from malaria per year. In 2017, the number of deaths from malaria reached 435,000 people.

How are some countries without malaria while others have to face millions of malaria cases and deaths each year? Most malaria cases are detected in low-income countries that are well equipped to prevent and treat the disease.

Countries that have succeeded in defeating malaria have done so through a combination of drugs and advanced treatments, preventing mosquito bites and eliminating infected mosquitoes. Their achievements inspired the larger global fight to end malaria for good.

The spread of malaria

For its magnitude of impact and damage, malaria is spread by its smallest host: the mosquito. Malaria is transmitted by a mosquito bite when the parasite from the saliva of an infected mosquito enters a person's bloodstream. Within one to two week, the infection becomes very serious. Symptoms progress in the form of fatigue, fever, headache, and vomiting. In the most dangerous cases, malaria can cause some typical symptoms such as yellow fever, seizures, coma, and death.

The disease is the most common disease appearing in tropical regions and humid climates such as sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. High temperatures and rain make the water to stagnate, create a favorable environment for mosquitoes to breed. In addition, it also supplies the main base for spreading of malaria.

Young children are most affected in areas with high malaria rates. Partial immunity can be developed over many years of exposure, but when a child is first infected, they face the greatest risk of death.

Malaria is a disease that kills children under the age of 5, taking the life of a child every two minutes.

In low-income countries, a child who is bitten by mosquito, often carry malaria to appropriate health services for treatment and the child's parents may not even receive treatment and reveal the true meaning behind the child's symptoms.

Treatment and Prevention

Malaria drugs have been created for many years to use for infected people. Traditionally, people with malaria with proper treatment can make a full recovery. But over time, antimalarial drugs become less and less effective as the malaria parasites have developed resistance.

Antimalarial are not a sustainable solution for malaria control due to their high cost and negative side effects associated with long-term use. In addition, with malaria being so common, fever is sometimes the only symptom used to diagnose a case. If a patient uses antimalarial drugs without infection, it reduces limited resources and further contributes to the development of drug-resistant parasites.

The best strategy to reduce the incidence of malaria is to prevent infection in the first place. And the most effective way to reduce initial transmission is to use insecticide-treated bed nets.

Since many mosquito bites occur while a person is sleeping, mosquito nets treated with insecticides are a cost-effective method of protecting millions of children and their families. Insecticide-treated bed nets provide 70% more protection than sleeping without a net and are twice as effective as using untreated nets.