Marissa serves as an Asthma Educator at Respiratory Health Association
Did you know? Thursday, April 25th was World Malaria Day. The World Health Organization instituted this special day to highlight malaria as a preventable and treatable disease. While malaria was eliminated in the 1950's here in the United States, it is a continuing public health and community development problem in other parts of the world. Let's take a quiz and see what we know about a disease beyond our own backyard!
1. Malaria is caused by a …
a. virus b. bacteria c. parasite
2. The estimated number of malaria cases in the world each year is …
a. 153 million b. 219 million c. 287 million
3. Of the total number of people that die every year from malaria, the percentage of deaths that occur in Africa is …
a. 50% b. 75% c. 90%
answers: 1C, 2B, 3C
Despite being both preventable (with the use of mosquito nets) and treatable (with a variety of medicines), malaria still claims about 660,000 lives each year. Malaria's main victims are children under the age of five living on the continent of Africa.
Although malaria might not infect any of our neighbors or nearby friends, it is important that we stay aware of public health issues all over the globe. It's as Martin Luther King, Jr. said,'injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
