As the first part of our malaria blog series, Elisha London, the UK Country Director at the Global Poverty Project, reflects on her encounter with this disease and the challenge it entails for our generation.
There’s an old African proverb that says “if you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito”. At 2am on 26 September 2008 as I lay awake with a high fever and severe pain, this saying came to life. A disease that affects nearly half of the world’s population had made it’s way through the humble mosquito to me. Malaria.
For me malaria was an unpleasant experience, but not a life-threatening one. However, for millions of people the story is very different.
The truth is for individuals, communities and nations…malaria sucks.
For individuals, malaria can be deadly. Over 1,800 children loose their life to malaria every day, that is one every 45 seconds. And, if it doesn’t kill, it has an impact on many other aspects of life. It causes brain damage, keeps children and teachers from going to school, and can cause miscarriage, child mortality and complications in women’s health.
Poor communities are hit hardest, as they often cannot afford prevention and treatment tools such as bed nets and medicines. Once malaria spreads, it can cost communities significant loss of life, drain resources and put the most vulnerable - pregnant women and children - at risk.
For nations, it is costly. Imagine if you had to take one week out of work many times a year. Not only is the personal loss of wages substantial, but malaria is estimated to cost developing countries up to 1.3% of GDP in lost economic productivity. Further, it drains already stretched public health budgets with up to 40% of entire budgets directed to malaria in some countries worst affected. Altogether the impact of malaria costs Africa alone $8 billion a year.
Malaria may suck, but it doesn’t have to kill.
I was fortunate enough to be driven to the local Ugandan hospital on a boda-boda (Ugandan motorcycle … a rather painful ride after those injections!), and be able to pay for medicine. This immediate treatment, coupled with the counter-active impact of anti-malarial tablets I had been taking meant that the severity of the disease was reduced. Within a couple of days I was back on my feet.
Providing people with mosquito nets and early, accurate testing is cheap and effective. Ethiopia, Rwanda and Eritrea have reduced malaria deaths by over 50% over the last ten years by using bed nets, sprays and medicines. What we need to do now is scale up these successes. One framework of how this can be achieved is represented in the Global Malaria Action Plan. This plan was created in 2008 to:
- Achieve universal coverage for the prevention of malaria in all areas at risk of the disease
- Reduce global malaria cases from 2000 levels by 75% in 2015
- Reduce global malaria deaths from 2000 levels to near zero preventable deaths in 2015
- Eliminate malaria in 8-10 countries by 2015
- In the long term, eradicate malaria world-wide by reducing the global incidence to zero through progressive elimination in countries
Ultimately what we need to see is a world without malaria.
This is a long-term, achievable challenge for our generation. We need to commit to this so the world’s poorest are not kept in extreme poverty by the impact of the disease, and we need to remember that until we do, no one is immune. The story of Harry Yirrell, the 20 year old British gap year student who lost his life to malaria in 2005 reminds me of this, and I’m inspired by the ongoing campaigning of his mother to raise awareness and funds for the disease.
To achieve the Global Malaria Action Plan a global partnership of sustained coordinated efforts of control, elimination and research is required, enabled by an increase in global funding.
As the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria represents two-thirds of international malaria funding, we at the Global Poverty Project are pleased to be partnering with Malaria No More UK to call for this funding to the Global Fund to be doubled when governments meet in 2012 to decide how much it should receive. If the Global Fund has the funding it needs, it will save millions of lives from malaria, not to mention more will be helped by the Global Fund’s work on TB and HIV. If you would like to join us in this call to ‘Fund the Fund’ you can click here.
I don’t think about what would have happened if I hadn’t received immediate medical attention. What I do think about is how thankful I am that that this disease is preventable, and that millions already have access to treatment, just as I did.
What we now need to do is make sure this is available for everyone, and commit to do everything we can to see a world without malaria. Will you join us? |
