Casting a Net for Life

I have been looking for a way to make Christmas gift-giving more meaningful this year. . . by reaching out to someone I don't know. I've been inspired by the posts for which links have been left at What I Learned Today, the site of wonderful writer Billy Coffey. Billy joined forces a few days ago with a powerhouse known as Katdish — she runs a place called Hey Look, a Chicken — and came up with "The 10 Dollar Challenge" .  Yesterday, with that challenge in mind, I decided to cross an ocean and cast some nets.

* * * * * * * *

Malaria: I haven't thought about it since the mid-1990s. 

I had to take anti-malarial pills — Lariam — when I visited South Africa around 1995. I read in advance of my travel the information about possible effects, and worried a little but not much, as I decided that taking a chance on the pills' effects gave me better odds than I'd have if I contracted malaria.

Malaria isn't a disease we hear or talk much about in America, unless we work with or support organizations in developing countries. Beyond a few words in our grade-school history books about the scourges of the New World, our introduction to the disease tends to be at places such as Georgetown University Hospital's International Health Service Travel Clinic, in Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Virginia, where I live, and then only if we are traveling abroad where malaria is a risk.

Found in every tropical and sub-tropical country, malaria is a very real risk outside the United States, especially in Africa south of the Sahara. As of the end of 2004, an estimated 3.2 billion people lived in areas at risk of malaria transmission. Worldwide, the disease, transmitted by the anopheles mosquito, claims more than 1 million lives a year. It accounts for 350 million to 500 million cases per year. It is a leading cause of mortality of children younger than age 5.

Malaria also is nearly entirely preventable. And one of the most effective means of preventing it is to "mosquito-proof" living and sleeping quarters with insecticide-treated nets (ITNs).

Yesterday, I bought five ITNs from Episcopal Relief and Development's Gifts for Life program.

Each net cost just $12.

Each net will help save a child's life or the life of a mother-to-be, and in each place where a net is cast, a roving health team will provide community-based training in effective use of ITNs and critical care for people suffering from malaria.

Twelve dollars for a life saved. Fifteen four-dollar cups of Starbucks foregone for five lives saved.

Yesterday, I took up a challenge and multiplied it. I bought some nets. I've cast them far away, and I'll never know the names of their recipients.

What I know already, however, is that five children or five pregnant women will be able to sleep another night, and then another and another, and wake up somewhere in the world to the wonder of a new morning without the marks of the insect that used to work on them at night.

_____________
Sources of Information: Websites for Centers for Disease Control and Georgetown University Hospital