Anvesha Bhagat
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Malaria, an infectious disease, causes high death rates in underdeveloped countries such as Nigeria, which is not only destructive to human healthcare, but also affects the economy, education, and household income. According to Runaway Health, “Nigeria is one of the highest-risk countries for contracting malaria”, demonstrating the drastic measures that need to be taken to help support this issue. The impact of malaria emphasizes the severity of these diseases, “It is estimated that more than half of Nigeria’s population experiences at least one episode of malaria each year… 30% of outpatient visits, 20% of all hospital admission, and 10% of hospital deaths” (National Library of Medicine). Malaria starts with an infected female mosquito which injects malaria parasites into the bloodstream, these parasites are what enter the red blood cells, causing detrimental side effects. These symptoms of malaria usually last for about eight to twenty, consisting of chills, headache, diarrhea, anemia, nausea, and many more.
In high-resource countries such as the United States, “Malaria is not endemic in the United States. This means it does not regularly occur or spread in the U.S” according to the CDC. The statistics in Nigeria highlight the urgency for significant public health initiatives and ever-lasting disease control systems. There are many preventative measures that can be taken such as sleeping under a protective mosquito net, wearing covered clothing, keeping the windows closed, and applying mosquito repellant, which helps the spread of diseases not reach other communities. Malaria impacts the learning environment, household activities, finance, proving to be destructive to both the people’s healthcare and the economy.
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