World Malaria day and South Korea

With the show of might between the United States and North Korea as aircraft carrier Carl Vinson comes our way plus Kim Jong-un’s reaction that says it’ll drown the supercarrier, this may be the wrong time to mention problems outside of Korea.

But it turns out that the animal that kills most people is mosquitoes ahead of humans! As we celebrate the World Malaria Day on the 25th of April, we have to face the fact that still there are 429,000 people who die each year of this disease that is spread by mosquitoes and 70 percent of those who die of the disease are children under 5 years old.

However, the good news is that the mortality due to this disease went down by 29 percent between 2010 and 2015. And sleeping under insecticide-treated mosquito nets can reduce the risk by 50 percent.

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has already distributed 713 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets and that must be the reason for this decline in death. The group claims that by 2020, 500,000 more lives will be saved and malaria can be eliminated by 2030.

Of course, this won’t just happen out of the blues. South Korea has contributed $33 million to this fund since 2002 and this should be acknowledged, especially since the country’s existence itself is so constantly threatened. But as it received so much aid to grow to become the 13th largest economy in the world, it is time to repay its gratitude by investing at least 10 times its current level of contribution.

After all, I am sure South Korean taxpayers will appreciate contributing to programs of aid that will save the most lives in the shortest amount of time, while its overall Official Development Assistance is increasing.

*National Manager of RESULTS Korea

Sunnie Kim