The World of Child 6 Billion
HEALTH
By the time you finish reading this paragraph one child younger than 5 years old will have died from one of five preventable diseases (pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, malaria, and malnutrition). One of these diseases, malaria, is easily spread by a common pest — the Anopheles mosquito. Malaria has been a serious health problem throughout history. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), its threat is still serious today and continues to spread. Malaria affects millions of people every year, causing untold suffering and death in almost every region of the world. Malaria kills more than twice as many people each year as does AIDS. Several outbreaks of the disease have even occurred in the United States since the mid-1980s. Malaria is the second-largest cause of illness in the world
Infectious and parasitic diseases cause one-quarter of all deaths in the world.
Fighting malaria is a global challenge: 1) Mosquitoes build resistance to insecticides. 2) The most severe form of the disease has developed resistance to cheap drugs. 3) Malaria is a complex disease, which makes developing a vaccine difficult.
While treatment is difficult, simple prevention techniques can help: 1) Reduce standing water to decrease mosquitoes' breeding ground. 2) Offer zinc and vitamin A supplements to prevent or lessen the severity of the disease. 3) Surround sleeping areas with mosquito nets to prevent mosquitoes from reaching people. At a workshop sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Laos, women learned how people get malaria and how to use bed nets to reduce mosquito bites. UNICEF donated a supply of bed nets for the women to distribute in their village. Efforts such as this combined to reduce malaria cases in remote districts of the country by 25 percent in just four years. Through their “Roll Back Malaria” campaign, UNICEF and WHO hope to cut the incidence of malaria in half between late 1998 and 2010. | Q&A;: Worldwide, what percent of children have access to health services?
find answer |
Presentation GuideGraph: Causes of Death Differ by Where People Live
view guide
Health
Health Q and A
Worldwide, what percent of children have access to health services?
Health Presentation Guide
Discussion questions, Talking points and Graph: Causes of Death Differ by Where People Live
|