22 April 2012
World Malaria Day
25 April is World
Malaria Day, so this is a good time to review the progress being made
towards the elimination of malaria, and in particular Pageant's
small part in helping to combat this killer disease.
There
are about 216 million cases of malaria
world-wide each year, with about 655 thousand deaths. There
has been considerable progress over the last decade, with deaths in
Africa cut by one third. The aim is to achieve near-zero malaria deaths
by 2015. A worrying problem is the
emergence of drug resistant strains of the malaria parasite
Plasmodium falciparum. If unchecked this could lead to
untreatable
malaria, reversing the gains made so far. Despite the
current economic climate, governments and aid agencies need
to keep
funds flowing to malaria control programmes, and to research
into
new and improved methods of malaria control.
Pageant's small part in the fight against
malaria in The Gambia consists of distributing Mosquito Nets to
village communities, and encouraging the cultivation of Artemisia Annua Anamed, from which people can prepare a 'tea' with proven
anti-malarial properties.
