The Book of Odds has reminded us today that we must keep working towards greater awareness of malaria in Western nations no longer devastated by the disease. The article claims that malaria is “out of sight, out of mind” and while that is true, more and more Americans and others are aware of the fight against malaria and are working to end deaths from the disease in Africa.

Malaria infected thousands of Americans through the early 20th century, and was especially widespread in the South. When the Tennessee Valley Authority was created in 1933 to promote economic development in the South, the odds that a person living in the TVA region was affected by malaria were one in 3.33. Aggressive measures, including widespread spraying with a new insecticide called DDT, virtually wiped out the disease in TVA states by 1947. By the early 1950s malaria was considered to have been eradicated across the United States.

Today Americans are only at serious risk of catching malaria if they travel to places where it’s still endemic, like Africa or Latin America. Worldwide, 41 percent of the world’s population lives in parts of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Oceania where malaria is present, and more than one million people die from the disease every year.

Malaria No More is striving to enhance awareness of the cause through innovative work. We will keep it up from an advocacy stand point as well.

Next week, June 21^st- 27^th, is National Mosquito Control Awareness Week. The Seattle Healthy Living Examiner gets a head start with an interesting article describing the threats mosquitoes bring to the human population.

As we know well, they are not only annoying pests that cause itchy bites but they carry and transmit diseases.

Mosquitoes can spread Dengue Fever, Encephalitis (a inflammation of the brain) and a number of other diseases but of course the most devastating mosquito transmitted disease is Malaria. Half of the world’s population is at risk, which leads to 250 million malaria cases annually. 1 million people die each year. In Africa, every 30 seconds a child dies from the disease (WHO). Although malaria was eliminated in the United States by 1951, it is important to realize the enormous affect it has on the rest of the world.

We can take steps to eliminate the annoyance of mosquitoes at home but how can we help across the globe? While the US is not highly affected by the diseases transmitted by mosquitoes billions in the world are, making it important for the US to help increase prevention efforts around the world.