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This is the second installment of ‘Humanitarian Friday’ last week we looked at the crisis in Darfur. For this post I thought I would highlight malaria, which is a disease that greatly affected our lives while we lived in Papua New Guinea.

When we lived in Papua New Guinea malaria was quite a common ailment. In fact, during the last night we spent in our village a young girl passed away from cerebral malaria. It was truly awful because the villagers only had quinine, a common malaria medication, in the pill form. Unfortunately, the health worker could not get the pill down the young woman’s throat, which would have saved her life. Additionally, if we had quinine in an injectable form she would have lived. Instead she died a horrible death.

So how is malaria spread?

According to the World Health Organization, “Malaria is a disease which can be transmitted to people of all ages. It is caused by parasites of the species Plasmodium that are spread from person to person through the bites of infected mosquitoes. The common first symptoms – fever, headache, chills, and vomiting – appear 10 to 15 days after a person is infected. If not treated promptly with effective medicines, malaria can cause severe illness that is often fatal.

Malaria transmission differs in intensity and regularity depending on local factors such as rainfall patterns, proximity of mosquito breeding sites and mosquito species. Some regions have a fairly constant number of cases throughout the year – these are malaria endemic – whereas in other areas there are “malaria” seasons, usually coinciding with the rainy season.”

What is malaria’s global impact?

*Approximately 40% of the world’s population, mostly those living in the world’s poorest countries, are at risk of malaria.

*Every year, more than 500 million people become severely ill with malaria.

*Most cases and deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa. However, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Europe are also affected.

*Travellers from malaria-free regions going to areas where there is malaria transmission are highly vulnerable – they have little or no immunity and are often exposed to delayed or wrong malaria diagnosis when returning to their home country.

What can you do to help?

One organization that is trying to make a difference in people’s lives where malaria is prevalent is SurfAid. They have been working in Indonesia to spread health awareness, and providing treated mosquito nets to villagers to try and prevent deaths from this disease.

Recently, SurfAid was awarded the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO) 2007 Humanitarian Award at the World Congress of NGOs awards ceremony in Toronto, Canada.

The award recognizes SurfAid as one of the best non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the world, a testament to their groundbreaking and effective approach to providing aid.

If you would like to support them and the valuable work that they are undertaking you should go to their site http://www.surfaidinternational.org/ to learn more about their efforts and make a donation.