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It is Malaria Day and we wouldn’t want want this day to pass without a word about it. After all malaria is one thing we Africans know a things or two about.
I often write about this topic over at Ethnic Supplies blog and this is a collection of posts I wrote last year. And the heading? well before you write me off let me explain. I am interested in how people find my blog and I have a cute little plugin that helps do that. Someone found a blog post I wrote about Cheryl Cole’s battle with malaria using that statement and another equally bizarre statement that had me in a rant over at BIRDS ON THE BLOG was WHY AFRICANS DON’T GET MALARIA – now this was really a curious thing to say as the footballer Didier Drogba had just been diagnosed with malaria- so that statement didn’t make sense. In the spirit of fairness I don’t think that folk here in the UK know much about malaria and probably have no reason to.
Back to Cheryl Cole- poor girl had a tough time- there was a media frenzy over her having contracted malaria so much so that someone sent a tweet that said I’m sick of hearing about Cheryl fecking Cole . I don’t know if she would have wanted the media to report about her illness the way they did but one thing for sure that type of reporting concentrate people’s minds- malaria is not just a poor man’s or an African disease
But in this day and age of cheap travel the world is getting smaller and destinations with malaria are that much closer. So if you are reading this and are thinking that only Africans catch malaria you are wrong and please go get yourself educated on the facts of malaria esepcially if you intend to travel to sub-Saharan Africa and other tropical countries.
Whilst here- African politicians/authorities that misuse money given for the treatment of malaria will not escape my wrath. Why do drugs donated to treat those that can ill afford health care go missing and what can be done about this? OK, silly question really, and I suppose the answer is the the same reason AID doesn’t get to those that need most.
So folk on this world malaria day, if you have a relative of a friend in sub-Saharan Africa the best present you can send them is a good quality mosquito net and if you intend to travel to a mosquito infested area the best tip I can give you is to avoid being beaten by disease causing mosquitoes
Ida