Originally published August 22 2005
Ethiopia prepares for a malaria epidemic
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A month before the rainy season ends in Ethiopia, large outbreaks of this often deadly disease are occuring, leading the country to prepare to fight the disease.
"We are alerting everybody and preparing ourselves as much as possible for this big epidemic," Health Minister Kebede Tadesse said.
The government and the United Nations say the epidemic could break out when the rainy season ends next month.
Pools created by rainfall are ideal sites for mosquitoes, which spread the disease, to breed.
Fifty million of Ethiopia's 71 million people are at risk from the disease, which is treatable but deadly in poor countries like Ethiopia.
"Reports from several regions this year indicate that there is four to 10 times the number of malaria cases compared to similar periods during the past two years," said Bjorn Ljungqvist, head of the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Ethiopia.
"As we brace ourselves to confront a possible epidemic this year we are better armed to prevent the mass deaths that occurred during previous epidemics."
More than 2 million insecticide-treated nets and some 600,000 kits to rapidly diagnose the disease were being distributed around the country, health officials said.
The new nets would triple the number of people using the lifesaving fabrics this year.
The program is the largest in terms of funding and number of nets being distributed.
Most of its $100 million in aid is provided by the U.S.-based Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.
Emergency drugs for 2.5 million people have also been imported to combat the epidemic.
Around 80,000 children die from malaria -- about 220 children a day -- in Ethiopia, with as many as 10 million people falling sick a year, according to UNICEF.
The disease drains funds that would otherwise be used to combat poverty.
The government spends around $100 million fighting malaria.
More than 90 percent of the money comes from foreign aid.
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