Disease prevention and treatment
WHO estimates that one billion people suffer from neglected tropical diseases. One in six people can’t afford to pay for their own health care. Rotary’s work in disease prevention and treatment addresses these critical areas of need by providing immunization or medical care for patients and training for health care professionals.
Combating malaria in sub-Saharan Africa
Last year, malaria claimed the lives of almost 750,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa, 85 percent of them young children. But now some of the poorest residents of Yirimadjo, Mali, are receiving protection from the disease through a Rotary Foundation Global Grant project supported by Rotarians in four countries.
The Rotary Club of Bamako-Amitié, Mali, leads the Bite Malaria Back project, which provides insecticide-treated bed nets, physician services, and medications to prevent and treat malaria. The Rotary Club of Capitol Hill (Washington, D.C.), USA, and five other D.C.-area clubs are supporting the project, as are clubs in India and Hong Kong. Rotarians teamed up with Project Muso Ladamunen, a nongovernmental organization fighting poverty and disease in Yirimadjo.
In just three months, more than 3,000 patients received treatment through Bite Malaria Back. Health workers visited 12,700 homes and treated 900 children. Over 80 percent of those children received critical medical intervention within the first 48 hours of the onset of symptoms.
“It is not acceptable for nearly one million children to die each year of a disease like malaria, which can be cured with a few dollars’ worth of effective medications, efficiently delivered to the thousands of children who need them,” says Maria Nelly Pavisich, of the Capitol Hill club.
A project supported by a Rotary Foundation Global Grant is giving children in Yirimadjo, Mali, hope for a malaria-free future.