UN: Tanzania, Rwanda best examples in curbing malaria

BabuK · 2013-05-02T15:37:12+00:00

Tanzania and Rwanda have been cited as examples in Africa in the fight against the killer disease malaria where there are over 200 million cases every year and a death rate of 25 percent. An official with the United Nation Foundation's grassroots' campaign, Nothing But Nets, said this when he made a dire plea to the international community to focus its attention on the continent, where mosquito biting illness is endemic. "Rwanda, Tanzania and Zanzibar all have very good health systems and have prioritize fighting and eradicating malaria there," Nothing But Nets director Chris Helfrich said, adding, These examples are "proof that it can be done, this is not a disease we have to live with forever," he said. Consequently, "we can eliminate malaria across Africa and get to a place where the disease is eradicated," Helfrich said. In a recent phone interview with Xinhua at a time when the United Nations is rallying global efforts against malaria, Helfrich said, "Specifically, our work is being done in sub-Saharan Africa and the vast majority of sub- Saharan Africa is malaria endemic." Nothing But Nets tag line is "send a net and save a life" and asks people to contribute a monetary donation of at least $10 so the body can provide an insecticide net to a family and decrease the global death scale from this disease. Malaria is a disease caused by parasite Plasmodium, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. Malaria, from the medieval Italian words mala aria or "bad air," causes 200 million illnesses per year and kills 600,000 people -- mostly children under the age of five, according to the official website of the Nothing But Nets. "The reason we focus on Africa is because 90-95 percent of malaria deaths worldwide occur in Africa and so that is the area of the greatest need," he said. The sub-Saharan area of Africa includes 48 countries, such as Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Kenya. These nations have received $45m of support from this young grassroots programme that conducts duties with partners on the ground like fellow UN agencies and the World Health Organization (WHO). Even though, "we are only about seven years old, we have been able to make a tremendous impact in that time and our work has really strengthened the work being done on the ground by UN agencies," he said. At this time, "the two UN programmes that we are most closely aligned to are the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), he said. On UNHCR, Helfrich said, "We have a very close relationship with them where we are by a wide margin the largest provider of nets for refugees across the continent" and "over the last four years, we have raised more than $10m and over one million bed nets to help refugees across the continent." "And to speak to the effectiveness of this partnership with this UN agency during this time, malaria has gone from the number one cause of death among refugees on the continent to the number five cause of death among refugees on the continent," he said. "With UNICEF we have partnered with them to help distribute bed nets to many of the hardest hit areas in Africa that suffer from malaria," he said. "So, whether that is in Chad, Togo or Cameroon we have worked with UNICEF over the last seven years on some big countrywide distributions with them and again have helped protect millions of families and helped save we believe countless lives," he said. "Bed nets remain one of, if not the most cost effective, tool to fight malaria and that is what we do," he said, adding that there needs to be a stronger push for every African to have them. The advantages include "huge economic benefits to having communities of people sleeping under bed nets," he said. "Getting sick from malaria is terrible," he said, adding that the illness is "the worst flu you can imagine and then some." "If you get sick from malaria there is a very good chance you will not be able to go to work for two weeks or four weeks or worst," he said. Even more difficult, "if your children get sick from malaria and you have to take care of them, you will not be able to go to work," he said. Even worse, these are heavy influences that have effected the continent's economy. According to the website of the UN campaign, 40 percent of the world's population lives in malaria endemic countries, and its treatment consumes nearly 40 percent of these countries' public health resources. Malaria brings a heavy burden on local healthcare systems. "It is estimated that somewhere between 12 and 40 million dollars is lost in productivity in the continent every year because of this disease and so bed nets are an essential tool and pulling the continent out of poverty," he said. SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

Thread starter BabuK
Start date May 2, 2013

BabuK

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UN: Tanzania, Rwanda best examples in curbing malaria

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