World Malaria Day

I'm not an Aussie Mozzie!

 Well here I am finally out of the water, I’ve spent weeks as a wriggler foraging around my puddle eating little bits of this and that , but now I’m an adult , got my wings and want to fly!!! WOOOO

Aussie Mozzie

 Are yes, the world is a beautiful place from up in the air, I’m definitely in a great climate. The air is warm, lots of rain, mostly a shower each afternoon and a feast of good food all around me.

 Well there is plenty of food for me but many other species here look lean and hungry, especially the humans. Where my puddle is the humans look particularly weak and ill, over the hill the humans look better but I can’t sip their sweet blood because they have fortresses to live in. They have glass in their windows and flywire on their windows and door for when they want to leave them open to let the cooling breeze through. Even if I do sneak through a hole or crack these humans have their beds covered with nets and have smelly stuff burning that will kill or repel me. They even spray the puddles to kill our wrigglers so they never meet us!



 Its much easier near my puddle. These humans have small houses full of hole to sneak in, they don’t have glass or fly wire, most of them don’t even have a mosquito net. When the sun goes down I and my friends are really hungry but we don’t have to wait long, just avoid the cooking fires smoke and we soon find a tiny child or older person to feed on. You see females of my species need that rich blood to feed on so we can lay hundreds more eggs in that muddy puddle that is our job in life and once we lay our eggs our job is done and we die as we have no more work to do. Its a bit sad really we don’t enjoy long life like the humans.

Malaria Areas in Red

 But I have heard it said that these humans don’t always enjoy a long life either, especially those who live near my puddle. They say that our bite has the potential to kill, especially if the humans can’t afford the medicine to treat the malaria we give them. The people over the hill are ok if they are bitten, they have doctors and hospitals and medicine to make them well. Malaria kills 655.000 children a year, they too had only short lives, their deaths could have been prevented if their parents could afford the treatment once they were sick. If they had been able to buy a mosquito net in the first place they probably would never have got sick.

 But the people by the puddle have no access to these things, they just get tireder and sicker after we bite them, little children die in their mothers arms, mothers and fathers die leaving children alone or in the care of others.

 If I was an Aussie Mozzie I would just be annoying and cause an itch spot. They don’t make people sick just itchy. Sadly most mosquitoes are not like this especially in the developing world, they are deadly carrying Malaria, which kills a person every minute of every day many of these being children.

 This does not need to happen, Malaria is preventable and curable. A $10 mosquito net will protect a family while they sleep. Quinine is readily available but needs to be given free of charge to all suffering from malaria.

 You could change the life of a child, or a family by donating a few dollars to the Malaria Intervention on the Compassion International site. Your few dollars provide households with mosquito nets, education on prevention, treatment for those suffering from malaria and dengue fever. Will you make a difference, give a child a chance to stay healthy, complete their schooling and play a part in a better world for their community.