Alive & Kicking UK

Why should I care?

Malaria remains one of the most devastating causes of death in children and pregnant women in the world, especially in Africa. What makes this particular tragic is that the majority of the over 100 million cases of malaria in the world are preventable with interventions which only cost £2 a year on average, and even where children catch malaria virtually every death is preventable with available drugs costing less than £1. Put another way, every day the number of children in Africa who die of malaria is equivalent to 3 jumbo jets full of children crashing into a mountain. The cost of providing bednets, free, to everybody at risk in the continent of Africa is around £1.5 billion, with another £1.5 billion for effective drugs for all who need them. This is a lot of money until it is put in context; it is equivalent to less than 5 years of the UK football premierships domestic TV rights, less than 20x Manchester United's or Juventus' annual turnover or only 100 x the transfer fee of £30 million for a single well known player (eg Andriy Shevchenko from A.C. Milan to Chelsea). Every year thousands of people arrive into Europe with malaria.

It's manageable

The tools to control malaria infection and cure those who get infected already exist. We have effective insecticides and other control measures and effective drugs. The only thing that is needed to is to make them available to those who need them. Most of those who die from malaria are very poor with average salaries of less than £10 a month. They know that malaria is killing their families, but they do not have the resources to prevent this. Often they spend their limited resources on ineffective methods because they cannot raise the capital for effective prevention such as bednets.

Providing information to people about how to prevent and treat malaria, and then providing affordable solutions for them to use will have a major impact on the disease.

Poverty is both a cause and a symptom of malaria

People who are rich, meaning over £50 a month, seldom die of malaria. It is a disease, above all, of poverty, as it is largely preventable and wholly treatable if you have the resources. The rural poor, especially in Africa, are those who live closest to the breeding grounds of mosquitoes, live furthest from medical care, and can least afford prevention and treatment. At the same time malaria leads to poverty. It is estimated that up to 20% of the GDP of many African countries is lost to malaria, and this hits the poorest hardest. They cannot work when ill, they cannot work when they have to care for children and dependents who are ill, and they haemorrhage money on treatment. In many areas of Africa the average person gets malaria, a life-threatening disease, 3 or more times a year (far more often than people in Europe or America get ‘flu).

Children are worst affected

In Africa the great majority of deaths are in children. After that pregnant women bear the brunt of disease. Fit adults can get malaria, in fact, several premiership footballers have had malaria and every year adults in the UK, Europe and the USA are affected by it. But it is almost exclusively the children who die. They can move from playing football with their friends one day to being dead 3 days later - and every death is a wholly preventable tragedy.

Spreading malaria

The spread of malaria cannot be prevented entirely in Africa- but it can be reduced very substantially. Deaths from malaria can be avoided - almost always - provided people are educated to come for help early with drugs which cost less than a takeaway burger or a half pint of beer.

We need to help

Deaths from malaria can almost all be prevented, but it is only possible with a partnership between people in Africa, Asia and South America, and people in wealthy countries. Those in endemic countries at risk from malaria need to be provided with simple, accurate and effective health messages so that they can protect themselves, their children, brothers, sisters and grandchildren from malaria. They also need access to bednets and drugs they can afford. Neither the children in affected areas, nor those in developed countries can defeat malaria alone- but together we can achieve this goal.

Some facts about malaria

Between 100 and 300 million people a year catch malaria, and over 1 million a year die from it, mainly children in Africa. Almost every one of those deaths is an avoidable tragedy.
The average person in parts of Africa gets bitten by an infected mosquito every night, and catches clinical malaria every few months.

After children, pregnant women and their unborn children are most vulnerable to malaria.

Did you know

Malaria was only eradicated from Britain in the 1920s, and from Europe and the USA in the 1950s. Many parts of Europe and America still have large populations of mosquitoes capable of transmitting malaria.