A Child Dies Every 45 Seconds from Malaria

First Cheryl Cole and now George Clooney; in the space of just six months two of the best known faces in showbiz have both fallen victim to malaria. These two high-profile cases have led to a large amount of media hype, helping to raise awareness of an illness that we rarely hear much about. But how does celebrity involvement affect the global struggle against malaria, and what does the future hold for the ongoing campaign to eradicate it? LS1 spoke with representatives of some of the leading charities in the fight against malaria to find out more about the current situation.
Malaria is currently one of the world’s biggest killers. The disease affects around half of the world’s population and causes over 781,000 deaths per year, with the vast majority of victims being children under five years old. In fact, by the time you have finished reading this article, six children will have died from the disease on average. Ninety percent of malaria deaths occur in Africa, where in many countries the disease has crippled whole communities and has proved to be a serious barrier to economic development.
Sarah Kline, executive director of leading charity Malaria No More UK, explains that despite the overwhelming scale of the issue there have been some encouraging developments in the last few years. “There’ve been some really positive stories from a number of countries that have made a lot of progress. In Rwanda and Ethiopia the number of deaths has been more than halved in the last five years.”
Ex- Leeds student Georgina Abbott is Community Director for JCI Leeds, who have helped to raise over £4000 for the United Nation’s ‘Nothing But Nets’ campaign through their ‘One Calendar One Life’ project. The calendar featured members of the group posing in nothing but mosquito nets, with ten copies signed by Orlando Bloom which are still up for auction. Georgina finds that the influence of celebrities on the media is very important. “When I attended our global partnership in the summer, the director of the Nothing But Nets campaign was saying that the media interest in the UK over swine flu was massive, whereas the coverage of malaria wasn’t very high at all even though the number of deaths in much higher.”
“It was interesting because there was so much more media attention around malaria after Cheryl had got it,” Georgina adds, “at the time I was working for the department of health, and you could tell that ministers were suddenly much more engaged with the issue.”
Sarah Kline set up Malaria No More UK just over two years ago as part of an international campaign to reduce malaria deaths to near zero by 2015, through investing in insecticidal bed nets, diagnostic tests and medicines. From its inception the charity has worked with celebrities to help promote its message. To mark the launch of the organisation, sports icons Andy Murray and David Beckham played tennis and football against each-other at Wimbledon, taking free-kicks into a goal made entirely of mosquito nets. Later Andy Murray, David Beckham and Denise Lewis went on to 10 Downing Street and hung a mosquito net on its iconic door. “It’s truly incredible to think we can stop this killer disease forever and it’s such a simple thing to do” Beckham said at the time, “for less than the cost of a football you can protect a family from dying.”
More recently in Autumn 2009 luxury British jeweller Stephen Webster designed a limited edition mosquito ring to raise funds for Malaria No More UK, one of which Victoria Beckham was seen wearing at the London Fashion Week. Stephen Webster reportedly said: “What a crazy world when one bejewelled mosquito ring can be responsible for protecting 13,000 people from the malaria carried by mosquitoes.” Influential West African singer Youssou N’Dour has also played an important role in promoting the charity, using world music to raise awareness of malaria prevention in Africa. In 2009, just before the distribution of nearly two million mosquito nets to every child under five, Youssou released a hit song encouraging all Senegalese families to take responsibility for the fight against malaria in their communities.
So is celebrity involvement always a good thing? Sarah Kline has mixed opinions: “Celebrities do raise the profile of malaria in the public eye. However we need to make sure that the facts that are reported alongside it are right, so that’s an important part of our job.” What about cases like Cheryl and George Clooney who caught the illness? “I think that the increased publicity given to malaria is a good thing,” Sarah says, “but there is a risk that we might underestimate the seriousness of malaria because in developed countries we tend to be able to get the right treatment, so we tend to see a full recovery as normal.”
But it is not just celebrities who can help promote the issue of malaria. “Students can help by speaking out, contacting their local MP and finding out about the policies of the main political parties,” Sarah tells me. “If we want the government to do more they need to know that this is one of their constituents’ priorities.”
There are also many fundraising opportunities that students can get involved with. “To raise even more money we’re organising a charity fashion show in the autumn of this year,” Georgina says, “and we’re hoping to get students involved in that, particularly fashion students.” World Malaria Day will also be taking place on the 25th April, for which many students have previously raised money through sponsored sports events such as cycle rides and marathons.
Malaria is fully preventable and relatively easy to treat, meaning that the majority of malaria-related deaths could be avoided at very little cost. £5 is enough to buy, deliver and hang an insecticidal net, and a diagnostic test takes just fifteen minutes and costs only 50p. Nonetheless, not enough money is being invested in tackling the disease. “International funding for malaria has nearly quadrupled from $35 million in 2000 to almost $1.9 billion in 2009,” Sarah Kline states, “but there still remains a big gap in funding.” That means that despite the important role of celebrities, ordinary people have an important part to play too.

Please email community@jcileeds.org.uk if you would like to make a bid for one of the Orlando Bloom signed calendar, or email geabbott2000@yahoo.co.uk if you are interested in taking part in the autumn charity fashion show.

Also please visit http://malarianomore.org.uk/ to find out more about the work of Malaria No More UK and how you can get involved.

source http://www.leedsstudent.org/2011-02-07/life-and-style/features/a-child-dies-every-45-seconds-from-malaria