She argues that malaria often keeps poor families poor, because sick people lose work time and harvest fewer crops. Now we just need the political will. And there needs to be a lot more money put into this thing. She is not exaggerating about the enormity of the problem. The statistics are staggering.
Malaria is a disease caused by mosquito-borne parasites.
The carrier mosquitoes are usually nocturnal, and bed nets over sleepers typically greatly reduce the number of bites. Three thousand kids die from malaria daily, and the disease claims more than two million lives a year. What s more, pregnant women are more likely to contract malaria, and twice as likely to die from it. The disease also causes millions of miscarriages and premature births. And experts are predicting an increase of as much as 20 percent in malaria-related illness and death in Africa alone.