TWITTER+WORLD MALARIA DAY

To Celebrate World Malaria Day on 25th April, I am launching my "Little Person's Appeal" to all Twitter users and like minded individual's to join me by donating any amount that will help me educate and assist with first-line knowledge in the villages for prevention and treatment of Malaria.

I am no Ashton Kutcher, or CNN Breaking News, but as a Little Person, I would like to make an impact.
Malaria is both Curable and Preventable.
On their website, WHO states that "Malaria control requires an integrated approach comprising prevention and treatment with effective antimalarials. Access to prompt, effective treatment is a key element of the Roll Back Malaria Strategy. It is vital that diagnosis(recognition) and treatment with effective antimalarials starts within 24hrs of the onset of the symptoms to prevent progression to severe disease or death"[Source:WHO website].(my italics).

Myth - DIAGNOSIS
When my daughter was 9months old, she developed an unusually high fever, would cry uncontrollably and just plain would not feed. Visits to her paediatrician elicited a prescription for Calpol(paracetamol) and a just-in-case antibiotic as her doctor took her samples to the lab for diagnosis.
Nothing happened! The fever remained high for three days with no feeding except for the occasional desperate glucose mix before I returned to the doctor demanding an explanation.
By a "lucky" coincidence, I also showed the paediatician her swollen arm for diagnosis and BAM!! a quick malarial test showed a good load of parasites in her blood and she was promptly(?) treated.

How many mothers in my neck of the woods - Kenya - have access to this type of diagnosis no matter how delayed? It took my Paediatrician a stretch of the imagination to diagnose Malaria because we did not live in an endemic Malaria Zone. How many mothers lose there children because of a simple misdiagnosis?
In Kenya, we walk into the pharmacy and prescribe for ourselves whatever drug we think will cure, with the able? assistance of the Pharmacist because we simply cannot afford to pay a doctor and pay for the medicine. We treat as we see it regardless of the lack of medical knowledge on our part.

Malaria diagnostic kits should be available at every pharmacist/chemist and medical institution on the same level that HIV kits are.
Together with 1)treated nets, 2)a campaign to arm first-line medical personnel(including pharmacies) with sufficient knowledge to offer this 3)diagnostic tool and medication for free will in the long run help reduce unnecessary malaria deaths. It costs "too much" for the regular person to seek diagnosis and treatment, sometimes until they are at deaths door - that this strategy will surely be the best form of defense.

Help me by donating here. Your contribution will help educate, and bring back Malaria Education & Prevention to the Forefront.
HIV education, as necessary as this is, has overshadowed a necessary campaign to fight Malaria.

Thank You.