Please contact us
and make a
donation
To make a financial
gift call
(206) 622-0549,
or mail gifts to:
Ivory Coast Medical Relief Team
P.O. Box 55996
Shoreline, WA 98155
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April 25 World Malaria
Day!
Every 30 seconds a child under 5 dies from malaria in Africa alone!
Join ICMRT to reduce this mortality rate and the loss of productivity in
adults caused by malaria in Ivory Coast!
April 2008
By Alain Adjorlolo, President ICMRT |
Join Our Malaria Event!
ICMRT will be having an awareness campaign at the Central Market in
Shoreline
Friday April 25 and May 4
For more information contact us at
info@icmrt.org |
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April 25th is World Malaria Day; a day set aside by the World
Health Organization to offer “an opportunity for malaria-free countries to learn
about the devastating consequences of the disease and for new donors to join a
global partnership against malaria.” It's fitting that this month 5,000 long
lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets (LLINs) purchased by ICMRT are being
released by the port authority in Ivory Coast for free distribution to pregnant
women and children under 5 years of age.
Malaria is caused by a parasite transmitted to humans through the bite of an
infected mosquito. The World Health Organization-recommended LLINs, whose
insecticidal effects can last 5 years, are highly effective against the
mosquitoes that transmit malaria. The purchase
of these nets was made possible, thanks to the great generosity of ICMRT’s
donors and their belief in our collective power to affect change.
These nets will be used during a 2-year partnership program with two organizations
located in Abidjan, to reduce pregnancy complications and mortality among
children under 5 from malaria. |
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We
Are Focusing on the Solutions!
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Effective malaria control leads
to dramatic declines in malaria death rates
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Prompt and effective treatment of
suspected malaria fever can significantly reduce malaria death
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The wider use of
insecticide-treated bednets may reduce episodes of illness by more than 50
percent in areas of high transmission
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As a child growing up in the 60’s in the Ivory Coast, my parents, like many others, took it for granted that 1 to 6 times a
year they and their children would contract malaria, a disease transmitted by a
parasite-carrying mosquito. However, thanks to chloroquine, we would
recover and move on with our lives.
Today’s malaria is increasingly caused by chloroquine-resistant parasite,
Plasmodium falciparum, which causes the death of 63,000 children under the age of 5, and 27,000
under the age of one in the Ivory Coast each year, |
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a country of about 18 million
inhabitants. The overall absenteeism caused by malaria among
school age children and adults and economic losses have also been identified as a major obstacle to
economic development. The fight against malaria has been identified as
one of the United Nation's millennium development goals and has recently received much needed
visibility and support globally. The free distribution of LLINs to pregnant
women and children under 5, and eventual expansion to the entire population, is
widely recognized as an essential part of this fight. ICMRT’s modest program
using long lasting nets is therefore a first in the Ivory Coast, where the
population is still living with the
consequences of a brutal civil war which destroyed the health care
infrastructure and set back the national health program.
The challenge is immense; but so is the opportunity to make a groundbreaking
impact in reducing malaria-caused mortality in small localities at a cost of
only $10.00 per net. Malaria Day should be a day of “determination and
optimism”. We are very excited to be on this journey and encourage you to
continue with your
support
of our program.
Learn more about ICMRT Malaria program
Malaria Prevention and
Treatment in Ivory Coast
2007 Malaria Fundraiser Gala
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