Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Malaria

I recently read that the gates foundation donated a large sum of money towards the fight against malaria. I was pleasantly surprised with their donation choice. As a scientist, it grieves me quite abit to know that there are alot of preventable diseases in the world (like malaria) which are only hanging around because there are so many peripheral things which get in the way. Money. Politics. Ignorance. Indifference.

Malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS are the 3 biggest threats in the world. AIDS everyone knows about. But nobody cares about malaria and tuberculosis. I bet you didnt even know that someone who has had malaria can get it again. Yes. They're still at risk.

Everybody funds cancer research because rich people regularly suffer and die from it. And it really is a terrible disease. I've seen with my own eyes what it can do. But really... don't you think some of that funding could be put towards helping the poorer countries cope with ridiculous things like dying of dehydration due to diarrhoea?

Its about time someone raised awareness about diseases that kill people unnecessarily. Which costs so little to just alleviate so much suffering. Death in a third world country hurts families just as much as death in developed countries. Maybe even more so when you know so many of those deaths could potentially have been so easily avoided.

Good on you Bill and Melinda for choosing malaria.

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