Thursday, April 24, 2008

World Malaria Day

Today, Friday April 25th, is the first World Malaria Day. The United Nations' statistics on malaria are grim: the disease kills about one million people a year. And it claims the life of a child every 30 seconds – 3,000 children under the age of five every day.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest hit region and the disease seriously impacts the economies of severely afflicted countries.

Malaria is both preventable and treatable. Bed net are the most effective program against the disease and have proven to reduce malaria transmissions by 20 percent.

More information can be found on the Roll Back Malaria website.

Some of this information was taken from the Voice of America website.

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