Opinion | Editorials
It costs little to combat malaria
International community should not ignore the life-threatening disease.
- Gulf News
- Published: 00:08 July 15, 2008
There is a cruel irony on mankind spending millions of dollars a day on weapons of destruction, yet when it comes to combating life-threatening diseases, the funding tap slows to a trickle.
Malaria, a scourge that claims the lives of more than a million people annually, is one of the neglected diseases.
Many of its victims are children in sub-Saharan Africa. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that the disease is curable over time and a couple of simple measures can drastically reduce its toll. Mosquito nets over beds and eradicating sources of stagnant water where mosquitoes can breed, all help in combating the disease and cost very little. But now there are genuine hopes that scientists in Australia may have made a breakthrough which could lead to a vaccine or simple tablet cure that could be used at the initial stages of the disease. Events in sub-Saharan Africa rarely grab the headlines which is probably why malaria is such a silent but deadly killer.
Just why the international community does not declare disease to be a clear and present danger to mankind, in the same way global warming is seen, is a mystery.
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