Facts of the matter -- Malaria

•  Scientists believe mosquitoes evolved about 230 million years ago in what is now South America. Of the roughly 3,500 mosquito species, about 40 transmit malaria. Each year, more than 350 million cases of malaria occur in at least 109 countries. More than one million of those cases result in death. Source: wikipedia
•  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was founded in 1946 specifically to combat malaria, which affected 30 percent of the population living in the region covered by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Source: U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• To eliminate the disease in the United States, more than 3 million acres of wetlands were drained, and DDT was sprayed in hundreds of thousands of homes. Source: National Geographic
•  In Africa, a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds. An estimated 90 percent of deaths caused by the disease occur south of the Sahara. Illnesses and deaths due to malaria cost African countries about US$12 billion a year total in lost productivity. Source: CDC Foundation
•  The word malaria is derived from the Italian for “bad air” because of the early belief that the disease was caused by breathing the stale, warm, humid air found in swamps. Source: NothingButNets.net
• The poliovirus consists of exactly 11 genes, whereas the malaria genome includes more than 5,000. Source: National Geographic
• A company based in Maryland, USA, is working on a malaria vaccine that attempts to attack all of malaria’s genes. The company is called Sanaria, which means “healthy air.” Source: National Geographic
• Of the four kinds of malaria parasites, known as Plasmodium , that can infect humans, the most dangerous is called falciparum . When a single falciparum parasite invades a liver cell, it produces more than 30,000 daughter cells, which are released into the blood when the liver cell ruptures. Recent studies suggest that the falciparum parasite is showing resistance to the most potent drug used to combat malaria, called artemisinin. Source: U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• In 1880, a French army surgeon stationed in Constantine, Algeria, discovered parasites in the blood of patients suffering from malaria. For this achievement, Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran won the Nobel Prize in 1907. Sir Ronald Ross, a British army general, won a Nobel Prize in 1902 for proving that mosquitoes spread malaria. The disease is transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes. Source: U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Insecticide-treated mosquito nets are the principal way to protect children from nocturnal Anopheles mosquitoes that feed indoors. A recent survey of 2,960 households in Kenya found that 92 percent of children whose families had at least one net had slept under it the night before the survey was conducted. The same study showed that less than 60 percent of the families surveyed owned a net, which cost about US$10. Since May 2006, the nonprofit Nothing But Nets has raised more than $18 million and purchased more than 700,000 treated nets. Source: NothingButNets.net
• Rotarians Eliminating Malaria, a Rotarian Action Group, is part of the effort to fight the disease, as are Rotary clubs and districts around the world. Since 1998, The Rotary Foundation has approved 108 humanitarian grants to support malaria projects in 27 countries.
• Worldwide, malaria is the fourth-leading cause of death in children under five years old. Potentially lifesaving treatments for the disease can cost less than US$3; two of the most popular treatments cost less than 15 cents a dose. Source: U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Jason Grotto is a Chicago journalist.