Malaria kills 1,500 children per day, but progress is being made

The world's deadliest insect is the mosquito, killing well over half-a million people per year. It isn't the mosquito that does the killing, per se, but rather the diseases they carry. The global fight against these diseases is showing progress, but further efforts are needed to turn the tide for good.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Mosquitos get a bad rap because they are inadvertent killers. No mosquito wants to kill its host, instead she just wants a quick, painless meal of blood to sustain herself and her children growing as eggs inside.

Yet, like something from a horror movie, the very bite involves the injection of proteins designed to make feeding easy for her. Injected in that first second of biting, along with various proteins designed to numb the bite and prevent the blood from clotting are many different diseases.

Act now to save a life!

Parasites such as those that cause malaria, yellow fever, and more, are introduced to your bloodstream, where they find themselves right at home. Multiplying within your body, these pathogens destroy tissue and bring about swift, debilitating, sometimes deadly illness.

This is how hundreds of millions of people die each year. And the diseases, such as the West Nile Virus, are spreading, even across the United States.

In some African countries, malaria alone may be responsible for the poor standard of living suffered by so many since it has a depressive impact on the population and productivity. Malaria also costs a lot to fight, once it takes hold in a victim and complications develop.

Nearly 1,500 children die from malaria infection every day.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that many of these deaths can be prevented through the timely delivery of medicine. Chemoprevention, a new method for preventing malaria has shown considerable promise. Chemoprevention includes administering small doses of medication to children in an effort to prevent malaria from infecting the child in the first place.

The doses are small and cheap, costing about 25 cent apiece, and there are four doses in a course of treatment. That means that for the price of a dollar, a life can be saved. The medicine itself cannot cure malaria once it starts, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Workers from Doctors Without Borders and the World Health Organization are planning to expand the program in Africa where a pilot program has saved lives and halted the progress of the disease.

Your Catholic Voice Foundation has launched the BUY A DOSE GIVE A DOSE program which matches contributions from engaged Catholics to double the amount of medicine sent to save people from his dreaded disease.

Every reader is asked to give a micro-gift to this effort, which when matched can save six lives for every $3 gift.

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It's an amazingly small amount of money compared to an incredible difference made in the lives of many. Please consider supporting this effort today.

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