Remembering the Burden of Malaria on Mother's Day

Progress is being made to save the lives of mothers and newborns around the world. Still, every minute, a woman dies of complications in pregnancy and childbirth, leaving her baby more likely to die within two years. Most of these deaths could be prevented. Join The Huffington Post and the Mothers Day Every Day campaign in the global movement to call upon world leaders to invest in health workers and strengthen health systems so that every day, everywhere in the world, all women and newborns have access to lifesaving care.

Our nation celebrates mothers on May 10th. Amidst the joy that we will share with our loved ones sits the reality that too many women and children in certain parts of our planet face the cruel, unrelenting challenges posed by malaria.

Without question, malaria's pain extends far and wide, infecting one quarter of one billion people each year and taking nearly one million lives on an annual basis. Africa not only suffers 90 percent of the world's malaria-related fatalities, but, as a consequence of its high disease burden, loses billions of dollars in economic productivity, ensnaring generations in a vicious cycle of poverty.

Malaria truly moves without a conscience, devastating young and old, male and female, leaving everyone in endemic regions at risk. On Mother's Day, though, the unique burden shouldered by women enters into sharper and sadder focus.

The disease strikes infants, children under five and pregnant women in astonishing disproportion, as these segments of the population account for 90 percent of malaria deaths. Given the dual role of women as both victim and primary protector of victims, malaria clearly belongs under the umbrella of traditional women's health issues. It deserves particular attention as a priority in maternal health, which the World Health Organization defines as pregnancy, childbirth and the six-week postpartum period.

Poor health and even death stalk the early stages of motherhood in Africa, where one-in-five newborns will not reach their fifth birthdays. Mothers confront an endless series of menaces, from malnutrition to dehydration, but nothing raises a fiercer specter to the well-being of their children than malaria. Those children who manage to survive the disease often face lifelong hardships, as malaria depletes nutrients at an early age essential to the development of their brains and bodies.

Maternal health, in particular, endures the ravages of the disease. Pregnancy in Africa carries an inherent risk for mothers, too frequently resulting in maternal fatality. The contraction of malaria by a pregnant woman only elevates the danger she will encounter. Those pregnant women afflicted by the disease deal with a greater chance of delivering low-birth-weight babies, a major cause of infant mortality.

On this Mother's Day, as some families rejoice, others grapple with the dispiriting consequences of an existence marred by malaria; however, on this Mother's Day, signs of hope appear.

We draw hope from the knowledge that we can prevent deaths from malaria among women and children through the application of proven interventions, especially by having them sleep under a long-lasting insecticidal mosquito net (LLIN).

We see hope in the collective global will and resources we have harnessed to turn the tide against malaria, including over $3 billion in funding, the commitment to cover all those at risk with lifesaving interventions by December 2010 and the declaration that we will end deaths from the disease by 2015.

We discover hope in the data revealing that LLINs now have been distributed to more than 45 percent of the population in endemic African nations and that 140 million LLINs have been distributed over the past three years, offering protection to nearly 300 million people.

We find hope in the efforts of the United Kingdom's Sarah Brown, who has brought to the issue of maternal health unparalleled attention and transformative action. Her understanding of the link between malaria and maternal mortality promises to yield dramatic results not only in the malaria sphere, but across the entire landscape of sub-Saharan Africa.

On this Mother's Day, when we express our most profound appreciation of the women who gave us life, we glimpse a future where malaria no longer denies so many mothers the happiness, gratitude and fulfillment they so richly deserve.

The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood and CARE, two organizations at the forefront of global women's health issues, have joined Secretary Donna Shalala and UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman and a distinguished group of advocates to promote Mothers Day Every Day, a campaign that raises awareness and advocates for greater U.S. leadership to improve maternal and newborn health globally as part of a global campaign uniting advocates around the world to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity. Follow the action at www.twitter.com/WRAGLOBAL.To learn more, visit www.mothersdayeveryday.org.

Check out the rest of our Countdown to Mother's Day series by clicking here

Comments

[mark sawaf]

I believe Obama will contribute more resources to important causes like curing malaria. he is smart enough to know the difference between true morality and values like saving lives from preventable and treatable diseases, and unproductive grandstanding like trying to save embryos and banning gays from loving and committing to each other.

[johnthesavage]

Yeah, we're all going to sit around this Mother's Day and think about malaria. Thanks, Ray.

[Juhd69]

Ha, Right on man. This is like something out of The Onion! This guy's bleeding heart is completely hemorrhaging!

[thomashusted]

Yes this is true about MMS I have been selling it for the past 2 years and I have some customers in Asia who have been healed of Malaria through MMS within a very short period of time. It is a simple, inexpensive, and very effective cure for malaria but that is also why the "powers to be" do not want it to be used as there is not much money at all to be made from it. I heard when Jim Humble approached the Gates foundation about MMS all they wanted to know was where are the official medical drug trial studies which of course cost millions of dollars to do which Jim did not have and of course the drug companies are not going to do. Also type in MMS into youtube and watch some interesting clips on it all. Anyhow I just hope somehow it will get out there on a widespread level so live can be saved.

[camper65]

And let's not forget to thank Rachael Carson, without whom none of these would have occurred.

[PhoenixFe]

There already exists a cure for malaria -- it's called MMS (Miracle Mineral Supplement) by Jim Humble. Check out miraclemineral.org and jimhumble.biz. It's very reasonable (one bottle will last a person a daily dose for more than one year and only costs $20) and it's very effective. Jim Humble has personally cured more than 2000 people of malaria and he has worked with others to cure more than 75,000 people in Africa of malaria. It's also effective on colds, flu, parasites, infections, etc.

[rwext]

bottom line... DDT worked and will work but the tragedy is that ganggreen is responsible for these deaths.

[anthroguy]

Insecticide-treated bednets demonstrate their effectiveness every night in malaria-endemic Africa. This is empirical fact.

CSAVAGE: If people don't have beds and sleep on mats on the floor (quite common), then the bednet is hung to reach the floor. Simple.

The point is to keep from being bitten at night when mosquitoes are by far the most active. The pesticide (generally a pyrethryn, rather than DDT) is to keep them from biting you through the mesh of the net when you roll up against it in the night.

SECONDHARMONIC: DDT sprayed on walls of a home works well against mosquitoes. The practice has minimal risk of generating DDT resistance because the only mosquitoes being killed are those tiny minority that venture into the home. In this case, the DDT has little or no impact on the genetic makeup of mosquitoes in the wild. (This is a different approach from the mass-spraying of DDT back in the Silent Spring era which did indeed result in DDT resistance, and a host of other environmental problems.)

Even with treated bednets and DDT-sprayed walls, people sometimes get malaria. So the other half of the equation is to get effective and affordable anti-malarials to the people who need them when they need them. This has proven to be much harder than providing bed nets.

[secondharmonic]

csavage, you too, don't believe in the science of evolutionary theory and population genetics, or have you never heard of DDT resistance? Small point mutations, or SNPs as the kids call them nowadays.

[friedfish2718]

A 2007 study by Dr. Donald Roberts, Professor of Tropical Disease at the US Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences found that three out of five DDT-resistant Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, carriers of human diseases like dengue and urban yellow fever, avoided huts sprayed with DDT.

The study looked at huts sprayed inside with three different residual insecticides - DDT, alphacypermethrin and dieldrin. Dieldrin's toxic effect killed 92% of mosquitoes that made contact. Alphacypermethrin worked by both killing and irritating mosquitoes making contact, prompting them to rapidly exit, providing a composite 61% transmission protection. DDT's spatial repellency kept almost as many mosquitoes from even entering the huts. By combining all three modes of action, DDT provided 73% protection.

"The findings of this study support WHO's recommendation to use DDT for indoor residual spraying," says Dr. Roberts "DDT's repellent action makes it a powerful public health tool. It also explains why DDT remains effective against malaria-carrying mosquitoes in India, where mosquitoes developed resistance to its limited toxic action."

I lived in a third world country and I recall mosquitoes dead on the floor for up to 6 months after spraying with DDT. Where I lived, flies were a problem. After spraying once some insecticide on a plastic table cover, I observed flies dead for the next 6-8 months.

[toadicux]

But DDT is too cheap. Must keep up chemical company profits you know!

[csavage]

While I appreciate the concept of malaria nets, surely you must know that beds are a luxury in Africa and many children (and their mothers) sleep on the floor. The solution to malaria in Africa needs to be advanced by Africans, not colonial powers. Many African nations want access to the same pesticide that eliminated malaria in the SE United States.....DDT.

[secondharmonic]

I have an idea for a 'clinical' cure for malaria, not a radical cure. Things about the evolutionary history of Plasmodium make it difficult to envision a radical cure. But, a cure of clinical symptoms that would not be susceptible to Plasomodiun resistance in a few short point mutations, I do have. Wanna bet that neither the Gates Fouindation, nor anybody else will fund me?
Groupthink, as always, is the winner.

[hidenout]

Fark the Gates Foundation, find a venture capitalist. If what you say is true, you and your money man stand to make a fortune.