Donna Mae Alaga 
A move towards ‘zero malaria’.
“Add your voice to those calling for innovations that bring new vector control approaches, diagnostics and medicines to accelerate progress against malaria,” World Health Organization on malaria elimination.
As mandated by Proclamation No. 1168, November is ought to be celebrated as the Malaria Awareness Month. This marks the urgency to take collective action both in individual and community levels at eradicating the threat of this comorbidity on human health through prompt diagnosis and curative interventions.
Brought by the jab of a female Anopheles mosquito infected with Plasmodium falciparum protozoans, this fatal condition manifests in a persons body through severe fever which persists every two to three days followed by subsistent shaking chills and then recedes to sweating experiences.
Globally, 70% of malaria deaths are caused by Plasmodium falciparum. In the Philippines, for instance, this has taken a toll on 333 Filipinos living in MIMAROPA region or 83.0 percent of the overall 401 malaria cases in 2022 based on the data provided by the Philippine Statistic Authority.
This is a clarion call to calibrate any initiative aimed at curbing the rates of individuals affected by this health risk. Backed by government support on making hospitalization accessible especially to the impoverished population isolated in rural areas, particularly indigenous populations living in forested, mountainous, and swampy areas, we could dismally alleviate the lives being put at stake because of this health predicament.
Say no to malaria, Tradesmen, and let’s continue equipping ourselves with proactive preventive efforts and educate our minds of the health landscape in our community thereby strengthening the chances of further eliminating this grave public health hazard into rising above zero.
