World Malaria Day! Zero Malaria Starts With Me!

JOSHUA NICHOLAS

Today the whole world commemorates the “World Malaria Day”.  April 25th is a day set aside every year all over the world to sensitize, educate and enlighten people about this deadly disease.

Globally, 3.3 billion people in 106 countries are at risk of malaria as seen in the latest world Malaria report released by WHO (World Health Organization). After more than a decade of steady advances in fighting malaria, progress has levelled off.

According to the report, no significant gains were made in reducing malaria cases in the period 2015 to 2017. The estimated number of malaria deaths in 2017, at 435 000, remained virtually unchanged over the previous year.
Urgent action is needed to get the global response to malaria back on track – and ownership of the challenge lies in the hands of countries most affected by malaria. On World Malaria Day 2019, WHO joins the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, the African Union Commission and other partner organizations in promoting “Zero malaria starts with me,,” a grassroots campaign that aims to keep malaria high on the political agenda, mobilize additional resources, and empower communities to take ownership of malaria prevention and care. (Source: World Health Organization report).

I join the world to say “Zero Malaria Starts with me”. Every year, the global tally of new malaria cases exceeds 200million and every 2  minutes, a child dies of this preventable and treatable disease. The damage inflicted extends far beyond loss of lives because a society prevalent with this disease will have the following effects:-
* A heavy decline on health systems
* Reduction in productivity level
* Eroding of economic growth as well.

Ultimately, we all need to invest our money in health products, clean our environments, access good drinking water and encourage a healthy lifestyle around us; as all these can tackle Malaria from the root. Thank you Bill and Melinda Gates for your continuous inputs to tackle the raid of this deadly disease in sub Saharan Africa. Also, we need to be more enlightened and get relevant and updated information to become agents of Zero Malaria in our community.

Say no to Malaria!
Zero malaria starts with me!