African Artists Raise Voices Against Malaria

AKAR, Senegal – As far as causes go, malaria may well be the least trendy. Luckily, when more than a dozen African musical superstars converged on this coastal capital to strut their stuff against the disease, Africa’s most persistent scourge, the organizers thought to invite the singer Corneille…..”When I learned that malaria kills so many people just because they can’t get simple medicine or a net to cover their beds, I said, ‘This is not possible, we must do something,’ ” he recalled, massaging his vocal cords. “It is like a tsunami every day here in Africa, only it happens slowly so no one notices, no one pays attention. So we have to bring the attention ourselves.”

….The concert occurred at an auspicious moment in Africa’s history, when other nations are turning their attention to this continent’s most recalcitrant problems, promising to increase aid to fight poverty. Whether it is the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which aim, among other things, to halve extreme poverty by 2015, or a British report that called for a huge increase in aid to Africa, the continent that long seemed forgotten is finally being remembered.

That may explain why malaria has suddenly become a celebrated cause.

The facts about malaria’s devastating effects have been well known for a century. That may be why the disease has received much less attention than AIDS, which has devastated Africa but still infects fewer people. Indeed, Malaria affects twice as many people as AIDS, measles, leprosy and tuberculosis combined, according to Roll Back Malaria, and every day 3,000 children die of the disease. It eats up 40 percent of public heath spending, and costs developing countries $12 billion a year in lost productivity. It hurts Africa, particularly African children, the most: 90 percent of malaria deaths occur in Africa.

Yet many affordable means to fight the disease exist.

“It is the lowest-hanging fruit,” said Jeffrey D. Sachs, the economist and antipoverty crusader, who attended the concert. “We are talking about $5 nets and inexpensive pills to save thousands upon thousands of lives.”

Behind the concert is a new approach, Dr. Sachs said, that emphasizes simply giving away nets rather than trying to sell them at a reduced price, which has been the traditional distribution method.

“How can you sell something to someone who has no money?” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”…

Source: New York Times