Mosquitos’ best pal is malaria…

World Malaria Day 2012

Spread by the magnanimity of female anopheles mosquito, Malaria affects more than 10 million people and claims around 40,000 lives annually in India. This is all the more unfortunate because, if some steps are taken, Malaria can be prevented. Simple measures like protective clothing, mosquito nets and eradicating breeding places of mosquitoes will bring down the graph noticeably. Poor sanitation is an area that needs to be addressed aggressively to weed out this menace.

Malarial symptoms are not something that you immediately connect to Malaria. As a result people disregard chills, fever, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting etc in the initial stage. Untreated symptoms can lead to complications such as cerebral malaria, liver failure, kidney failure, spontaneous bleeding which may even prove fatal. There are certain drug resistant varieties of malaria that can are really challenging to treat. Even as we speak, a company is all set to release India’s first indigenous malarial drug. A toast to that. Search for a vaccine is ongoing, notably the development of RTS, S Vaccine and it is hoped to be launched by 2015.

The theme for World Malaria Day 2012 is “Sustain Gains, Save Lives: Invest in Malaria”. Yes, the fight against malaria is at a crucial juncture. Whether the worldwide malaria map will keep shrinking or will be reclaimed by the malaria parasites, depends largely on the quantum of resources and efforts that will be invested in control efforts worldwide over the next few years.

How do you keep yourself from providing free meals to mosquitoes? Wear earthy colored, khakis or light colored clothes, as studies have shown that mosquitoes are more attracted to dark colors. Mosquitoes find you by body odor and sweat; stay clean to avoid unwanted attention from mosquitoes.

Since, antimalarial vaccines are not yet available to provide the immunity, protecting yourself from mosquitoes is the only preventable measure you can rely on. Five effective ways to protect yourself are:

1. Self protection (wear long-sleeved clothes, applying repellent ointments)

2. Repel mosquitoes (use mosquito-repellant coils/liquids/sprays)

3. Prevent mosquito entry (use bed nets, window nets)

4. Prevent mosquito breeding (cover garbage bins, prevent collection of water in flower pots, cooler trays, etc)

5. Destroy mosquito breeding sites (use insecticides/ larvicides)

Protect yourself, don’t fall prey to the buzzing menace.

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