With Malaria, Even a Simple Kindness Matters


Will malaria finally stop claiming innocent lives in this decade or this century? Maybe. Great strides are made every year toward infection prevention and disease cures. Still, since time immemorial, it remains one of the most stubborn diseases in the world.

Malaria preventatives and cures work if the right medication is administered in time. That’s a blessing. A childhood vaccine that could protect against infection is finally on the horizon. Insecticides also attack the disease from the opposite direction by controlling the population of malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

Yet, even with all these efforts, the insects as well as the parasites they host are notoriously resilient. It’s always an uphill battle.

The World Health Organization (WHO) believes several countries could eliminate malaria by 2020. They refer to those locations as “E-2020” countries. Global organizations and medical research groups do great work toward eventual total eradication. South-East Asia, Africa and the Americas, they explain, have seen the most notable, recent success in fewer lives lost to the terrible disease.

In the meantime, how many more people will become infected? How many will die? Eradication matters, but so do the lives of people suffering and at risk today.

Global elimination efforts are complex and cost billions, according to WHO. But a person can find safety tonight behind a simple, inexpensive mosquito net. That’s where GFA-supported workers step in. Netting can’t erase this terrible disease from Earth, but it can help families stay healthy until that day arrives.


There is No Harvest Tomorrow Without Labor Today

You can’t plant a crop in the morning and expect a meal from the same field for tonight’s supper. The same could be said of the efforts to eliminate malaria. The seeds planted today may yield a bountiful harvest of health and happiness in years to come. But what happens in the meantime?

The simple protection of a mosquito net might seem less grand in scope than wiping the disease from the planet. Maybe no one will win an award for going from village to village with stacks of netting to distribute to people in need. For the lives they save today, those small kind gestures are priceless.

Mosquito nets in conjunction with insecticides, preventative medications and medical cures form a more united front. They help fewer people become infected with malaria and help more infected people survive.


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