World Malaria Month

Every 30 seconds, an African child dies of malaria.

What do you think the number one killer in Africa is? Do you think it is AIDS? What about malnutrition? The answer is malaria. It kills over one million people a year, most of whom are children under the age of five. To put it another way, 7 jumbo jets full of children die every day because of malaria. The saddest thing about this is that malaria is both treatable and preventable. My brother recently visited me here, and upon returning home he exhibited signs of having malaria. It was not a big deal because he just went to the doctor and got tested. He just had the flu, but if it was malaria, he would have just taken the medication and within a few days been back to life as normal. Did you know we used to have malaria in American? We eradicated it. All over the developed world, malaria deaths became a thing of the past. We will eradicate it in Guinea and we will eradicate in Africa, but it is going to take a concerted effort. And seriously, who is not willing to make a concerted effort to save 7 planes worth a day of adorable children with their whole future ahead of them from a preventable disease. So, as a CED volunteer, what am I doing to prevent malaria? I am working with people to increase their economic security so that in the case of an illness they have the money to treat themselves or their family. Mosquitos take the malaria tainted blood out of one person and basically inject it in another. If you treat your malaria, you cannot spread it so treating early (and always) can slow the rate of malaria infections. According to the "Against Malaria Foundation", spending £1m increases the annual African GDP by £12. As a CED volunteer, this is a fight we need to get behind. How will you stomp out malaria in 2013?

For more information, check out stompoutmalaria.org or Stomp Out Malaria on facebook.

My bed for training in Dubreka. Note the insecticide treated mosquito net