Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201304261168.html?viewall=1
Africa - Malaria - Keeping a Crafty Killer On the Run
By Allafrica, 26 April 2013
Imagine that snake attacks were killing a person a minute. Or that it was dogs, or foxes or chickens that were killing three-quarters of a million people a year. Envision the non-stop media coverage - and the public outcry to stop the carnage.
Instead, the mass killer is the mosquito, weighing in at 2.4 milligrams, about the same as two human eyelashes. Scientists say the mosquito is the most dangerous creature on earth, carrying diseases that have killed more people than all the world's wars combined.
Across much of the world, the insect is treated as no more than a nuisance during outdoor activities; mosquitoes in temperate climates rarely carry the parasite that causes malaria. But malaria-transmitting mosquitoes blanket more than 40 percent of the earth, and 90 percent of the deaths they cause are in Africa.
Today, on World Malaria Day, as on any given day, an estimated 3,000 children will die of malaria -- most of them before their fifth birthday, according to the United Nations. More than one-quarter of all childhood deaths in Africa are attributed to malaria...
Africa - Malaria - Keeping a Crafty Killer On the Run
By Allafrica, 26 April 2013
Imagine that snake attacks were killing a person a minute. Or that it was dogs, or foxes or chickens that were killing three-quarters of a million people a year. Envision the non-stop media coverage - and the public outcry to stop the carnage.
Instead, the mass killer is the mosquito, weighing in at 2.4 milligrams, about the same as two human eyelashes. Scientists say the mosquito is the most dangerous creature on earth, carrying diseases that have killed more people than all the world's wars combined.
Across much of the world, the insect is treated as no more than a nuisance during outdoor activities; mosquitoes in temperate climates rarely carry the parasite that causes malaria. But malaria-transmitting mosquitoes blanket more than 40 percent of the earth, and 90 percent of the deaths they cause are in Africa.
Today, on World Malaria Day, as on any given day, an estimated 3,000 children will die of malaria -- most of them before their fifth birthday, according to the United Nations. More than one-quarter of all childhood deaths in Africa are attributed to malaria...