Spotlight on Orphans March 2006, Malaria

<body> <p align="center"><font size="5">Malaria   </font></p> <p>Many of our articles concerning the orphans we work for have centered on the huge problems caused by the disease of<br> HIV/AIDS. The primary reason for this is, of course, because most of the children we work with are orphans because<br> their parents died from complications of AIDS. We know a whole generation of young adults aged twenty to forty are<br> being wiped out in Africa, with the problem spreading to India, Russia, and South America.<br> This column is about another killer in the third world that until recently has gathered very little attention. This disease has<br> been with us since Biblical times, and its victims are most often children under the age of five, or adults whose health is already compromised by AIDS and tuberculosis. Malaria is the world’s most prolific parasitic disease, killing as many as three million people a year. Almost all are children under five; poor, undernourished, and African. In most years, there are as many as five hundred million cases of malaria, although that figure is merely an estimate by the WHO. Many cases go unreported, as most of the victims are too poor to receive medical care. Additionally, HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria drive each other, and during periods of great famine, even more fuel is added to the pandemics.<br> Malaria has a sudden onset. The patient experiences violent chills followed by high fever, intense headache, convulsions and delirium. The parasites first develop in the liver soon after the child is bitten by a carrier mosquito. Soon they<br> multiply by the millions, taking over the entire body. The parasites thrive by eating the red blood cells and can attach to<br> the blood vessels in the brain. If the initial attack does not kill, the disease may reoccur for years. Another interesting<br> aspect of malaria is that as well as being particularly deadly to children under five, it also impacts women who are experiencing their first pregnancy similarly, if they are bitten by an infected mosquito. However, after the birth of the first<br> child, the woman develops an immunity that carries over into subsequent pregnancies.<br>  </p> <p>To learn about orphans and orphanages click the links below</p> </p> <p> </p> <a href="pg_0001.htm" TARGET = "_top">Orphans and Orphanages 1</a><p> </p> <a href="pg_0002.htm" TARGET = "_top">Orphans and Orphanages 2</a><p> </p> <a href="pg_0003.htm" TARGET = "_top">Orphans and Orphanages 3</a><p> </p> <a href="pg_0004.htm" TARGET = "_top">Orphans and Orphanages 4</a><p> </p> <a href="pg_0005.htm" TARGET = "_top">Orphans and Orphanages 5</a><p> </p> <a href="pg_0006.htm" TARGET = "_top">Orphans and Orphanages 6</a><p> </p> <a href="pg_0007.htm" TARGET = "_top">Orphans and Orphanages 7</a><p> </p> <a href="pg_0008.htm" TARGET = "_top">Orphans and Orphanages 8</a><p> </p> <a href="pg_0009.htm" TARGET = "_top">Orphans and Orphanages 9</a><p> </p> <a href="pg_0010.htm" TARGET = "_top">Orphans and Orphanages 10</a><p> </p> <a href="pg_0011.htm" TARGET = "_top">Orphans and Orphanages 11</a><p> </p> <a href="pg_0012.htm" TARGET = "_top">Orphans and Orphanages 12</a></p> </body>