1,000,000 . . . AND ONE
April 24, 2012
By Brett MacLean, MD, pediatrician in Mali, West Africa
One million. That’s about the number of people in the world who die from malaria-related causes each year. I used to think it was an exaggeration. That was before I survived my first malaria season at Koutiala Hospital for Women and Children in Mali.
After admitting 350 patients with severe malaria, giving more than 150 transfusions, examining countless children in a vegetative state who will never walk or talk again, receiving numerous kids who died on their journeys to the hospital and placing my stethoscope on the chests of at least 10 little ones, only to hear their hearts take their last beat—I believe it.
If anything, one million malarial deaths a year is an underestimate.
Read the rest of the story on the alife website.
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