Target: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of World Health Organization
Goal: Deliver more effective mosquito bed nets that help prevent malaria in at-risk populations.
A disease that kills over half a million people annually now has powerful new combatants. The world’s first malaria vaccine first brought renewed hope to the 250 million citizens who were infected with malaria in a year’s time. Now, an upgraded version of another important tool for malaria prevention is showing more promise.
Malaria is typically transmitted by mosquitoes, and the majority of severe cases occur in Africa. Protective devices known as mosquito bed nets have become popular, but malaria strains have likewise become increasingly resistant to insecticides used on the nets. Yet a new form of net that combines the efficiency of two insecticides has demonstrated an ability to cut malaria infections by as much as half. Better yet, the nets are inexpensive and therefore accessible to a wide swath of people.
Investment in these nets and their potential is strengthening, but more could be done to make the beneficial devices widely available across the African continent. Sign the petition below to urge a full-scale deployment of a resource that could help wipe out one of the world’s worst infectious diseases.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Director-General Ghebreyesus,
The New Nets project—a partnership of Unitaid and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria—has introduced the world to efficient new versions of mosquito bed nets that may reduce malaria illnesses by as much as half. This effort joins the contributions made by a malaria vaccine to one day eradicate an infectious disease that claims the lives of hundreds of thousands across Africa and beyond. Investment is robust, so deployment of these invaluable tools to Nigeria and other high-risk areas should be the next top priority.
Please help ramp up the creation and delivery of resources that could reshape the fight against infectious illness.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: President’s Malaria Initiative
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Countries whose people are harmed and killed each year need to step up to protect their citizens. Nets are available as is the medication in the form of inoclulation.
The world also has a part to play in protecting these people. We are the people of the earth and we need to show that we care for others!