Malaria

I wrote this a few weeks ago but never posted it for some reason so here it is.


This is the "Facts" section, and to tell you the truth Wikipedia writes these better then I can so I copied it:

Malaria is a potentially fatal tropical disease that is caused by a parasite known as Plasmodium. It is spread through the bite of an infected female mosquito. The parasites multiply within red blood cells, causing symptoms that include symptoms of anemia (light headedness, shortness of breath, tachycardia etc.), as well as other general symptoms such as fever, chills, nausea, flu-like illness, and in severe cases, coma and death. Malaria transmission can be reduced by preventing mosquito bites with mosquito nets and insect repellents, or by mosquito control measures such as spraying insecticides inside houses and draining standing water where mosquitoes lay their eggs.

Although some are under development, no vaccine is currently available for malaria; preventative drugs must be taken continuously to reduce the risk of infection. These prophylactic drug treatments are often too expensive for most people living in endemic areas. Most adults from endemic areas have a degree of long-term recurrent infection and also of partial resistance; the resistance reduces with time and such adults may become susceptible to severe malaria if they have spent a significant amount of time in non-endemic areas.

According to one study one child dies every thirty seconds from malaria.


This is the "Discussion" part of the blog which I wrote:

I was over at Mike and Lawries’ house on Tuesday hanging out and Mike started talking about this e-mail got. He told us that a child dies every 30 seconds from malaria. This is so crazy, let’s do the math. That is 2 children a minute, 120 children an hour, 2,880 children a day, 1,051,200 children a year. I don’t know about you, but I had no idea this was even happening, I knew this killed people, but over a million children not counting adults? How did I miss this? To tell you the truth before I wrote this blog I didn’t even really have a full understanding of what Malaria was. Facts like these have been presented to me so many times in the past, but I guess for the first time I realized how hard to them I have become.

Part of all this concern for the hardness is coming from Fancies Chan. I listened to one of his sermons yesterday and I started crying. He started talking about this guy he met who is one of leaders in the fight against human trafficking. There little children who are being kidnapped and sold into slavery. He brought up how when one part of the body suffers the whole body should suffers, and how we should mourn with those who mourn. So he said that he tried imagining his own children being taken from him and forced to do the horrible things. He asked himself questions like, “What he would he do?” and “How would he react?” He was such a mess, it was so astounding how heart broken he was for these kids. I wish I could say that the reason I cried was for the same reason, but it wasn’t. I was so upset that I have never truly felt that way. Of course I am saddened by the injustice in this world, and I long for the opportunity to do something about it. But have a really mourned for those people, those children who are dying from a mosquito bite? I mean really mourned? I am not sure that I can say that I truly have.

I live in my own little world.

In this world it is nice to talk about change.

It is nice to talk about injustice and how it should change.

It is also nice not to do anything about it.

I understand that I am in the place I am for a reason, and I am making a difference, even if it is small. But I want more. I want to help people. Awareness of the issue is one thing, but doing something about it is another. There isn’t a cure for Malaria, I watched videos and read articles on what is being done. As far as I can tell it’s far too sciency and smart for me to understand, but I do think they are doing the best that they can. Someday there will be a vaccine to cure this madness, but it will be a while.

Malaria isn’t the point for me, as bad as it is. The point is that I have to keep letting the Holy Spirit invade my life. We all do. We have become hardened by the things of this world. We can’t stop focusing on justice. We can’t stop talking about things outside of ourselves. I need a constant reminder of where Gods heart really is. We may get tired of hearing these facts, seeing these kids, reading these words, but we have to keep doing it.