OCSI is the local leader in the fight against malaria by giving lectures that educate the population in the surrounding villages on how to prevent malaria. Malaria is still very common in Angola and it continues to take the lives of many children. Your donation will help OCSI continue to provide educational programs on malaria prevention.
Information about Malaria
- Malaria is a disease that kills 2400 people per day (cited from Malaria Foundation Intl.)
- It is transmitted by mosquitos, and preventable with the use of mosquito nets.
- Malaria is a serious and sometimes fatal disease caused by a parasite that commonly infects a certain type of mosquito which feeds on humans. People who get malaria are typically very sick with high fevers, shaking chills, and flu-like illness. Although malaria can be a deadly disease, illness and death from malaria can usually be prevented.
- Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease.
- It is a public health problem today in more than 100 countries inhabited by some 2,400 million people — 40 percent of the world’s population.
- Malaria is estimated to cause 300- 500 million clinical cases and over one million deaths each year.
- Every 30 seconds, a child somewhere dies of malaria. In any given year, nearly ten percent of the global population will suffer a case of malaria.
- Most survive after an illness of 10-20 days.
- Children are especially vulnerable to malaria. In Africa, where 80% of malaria cases are treated at home, the disease kills one child in twenty before the age of five.
- Pregnant women are also at high risk. They have an increase risk of disease and death, as well as adverse impacts for their developing babies- including low birth weight, growth retardation, still births and death.
- In African countries, up to 60% of hospital admissions may be for malaria; that’s 6 out of 10 admissions!
- Travelers to Sub-Saharan Africa have the greatest risk of both getting malaria and dying from their infection. All travelers to any countries with malaria risk may get this potentially deadly disease, and thus taking proper precautions is essential.
- Other high-risk groups include refugees, displaced persons, or labour forces entering into endemic areas.
- Malaria is transmitted in large areas of Africa, Central and South America, the island of Hispaniola (includes Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic), Asia (including the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and the Middle East), Eastern Europe, and the South Pacific.