As
some of you may know, today is World Malaria Day. I was trying to
decide how exactly to mark the occasion through my blog. There's a
lot of pressure when your job is all about malaria... So much could
be said, but where to start?
I
considered writing a bit about malaria in general. Talking about how
it's both preventable and treatable, yet we still haven't beat it.
About how pregnant women and children under five are the most at
risk. About how historically we keep developing new treatments, and
the parasite keeps evolving and developing resistance. But then I
decided that none of this can be summed up in a blog post—and
others have already said it so much better. In fact, if you are
interested, I highly recommend Sonia Shah's The
Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years.
http://soniashah.com/books/the-fever/
Both interesting and informative.
In any case, after thinking all day I decided not to write anything. I'd rather not have anything terribly serious, since diseases are depressing already. So instead I decided to point you in the direction of a lovely little short by Disney about malaria. It was made back in the '40s (you'll notice when they show a map that we used to have malaria in the States as well). It may not make you super sad thinking about dying children, but it will at least teach you more about malaria--and understanding how malaria is transmitted and can be prevented is a big part of the fight.
So Happy World Malaria Day and enjoy the video!
The Winged Scourge (Disney '43)
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