Malaria is a disease of the blood that is caused by a parasite transmitted from person to person by certain types of mosquitoes. Malaria symptoms, which appear about 9 to 14 days after the infectious mosquito bite, include fever, headache, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms. If drugs are not available for treatment or if the parasites are resistant to them, the infection can lead to coma, severe life-threatening anemia, and death by infecting and destroying red blood cells and by clogging the capillaries that carry blood to the brain (cerebral malaria) or other vital organs. Worldwide, malaria causes around 350 to 500 million illnesses and more than one million deaths annually.

The effects of Malaria are particularly devastating in Zambia, where there are more than 3,000,000 incidents of malaria a year and 50,000 malaria-related deaths.  BD supported a program through the Global Business Coalition on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC), and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to purchase 500,000 long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets to protect 1,000,000 of the most vulnerable kids (2 children can sleep under one bed net) in Zambia.

Additionally, BD is investing in a new rapid diagnostic test to detect the most deadly strain of malaria, Malaria falciparum. 

For more information about malaria, please visit www.malarianomore.org

Find out what BD is doing to improve Global Health...