Bed-nets Save Lives

April 25th, 2011 World Malaria Day

Why should we care?

• Causes 200 million illnesses/year
• Kills nearly 1 million people/year mostly young children under 5
• Particularly devastating in Africa where it is the leading killer of children
• 10 new cases of malaria every second
• Every 45 seconds a child in Africa dies from a malaria infection
• Malaria is the number one killer of refugees in Africa
• 40% of the world lives in malaria endemic countries
• Its treatment consumes nearly 40 percent of these countries’ public health resources. In addition to the burden on local healthcare systems, malaria illness and death costs Africa approximately $12 billion per year in lost productivity. The effects permeate almost every sector. Malaria: Increases school absenteeism...........Decreases tourism............Inhibits foreign investment..........Affects crop production
• Malaria has been brought under control and even eliminated in many parts of Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Yet in Africa, with increasing drug resistance and struggling health systems, malaria infections have increased over the last three decades
• While malaria remains one of the deadliest diseases on the African continent, infections can be prevented either by spraying insecticides indoors or by sleeping under long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets
• Bed nets work by creating a protective barrier against deadly-malaria carrying mosquitoes that bite at night. A family of four can sleep under an insecticide-treated bed net, safe from malaria, for three years. The benefits of bed nets extend even further than protecting those sleeping underneath them. The insecticide woven into each net makes entire communities safer – killing and repelling mosquitoes so that they can’t go on to bite others who may not be protected by a net
• Although $10 for a bed net may not sound like much, the cost makes them out of reach for most people at risk of malaria, many of whom survive on less than $1 a day. Nets are a simple, life-saving solution, but we need your help to provide them to those in need. Join us now. Send a net and save a life. Nothing But Nets (http://www.nothingbutnets.net/malaria-kills/)
• When combined with HIV/AIDS, malaria is even more deadly, particularly for pregnant women and children

Would you please consider purchasing a bed-net for $10 and helping one of God's children have a better future? One with hope and a future. Not one of illness and death. I know I spend $10 daily and I can certainly give it to a better cause. One that isn't about me but about others.

Nothing but Nets has sent over 4,217,489 nets to Africa! AMAZING