scottfiller_senegalSenegal, which is situated on the western coast of Africa, has become a place that sets the example for the rest of Africa on how to keep malaria from ravaging a community of people.  Malaria will claim over 600,000 victims before the end of 2014 and most of them are young African children.  A small town in Senegal, known for its sugar cane fields, is battling the devastating disease because the sugar cane fields are an ideal breeding ground for millions of mosquitos.  The Ministry of Health and World Health Organization are doing something about it.  Both organizations are making sure that effective treatments are available nearby and health facilities with abilities to run rapid tests have also been made available.  With these efforts, malaria has almost been wiped out in the community.

With the successes of this small town those who have seen their world improved with the MOH and the WHO want to see these results around the entire country.  The Global Fund article explains that this long-term goal cannot be done overnight and it will require a partnership from various organizations like The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, the Gates Foundation, and the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative with the Senegalese Government.

And Senegal hopes to avoid what has happened in other countries across Africa.  In countries that have decreased their efforts towards combating malaria through reduced transmissions, since 1930, 75 resurgences have taken place.  This sparked the Cost of Inaction to produce a report that stated they expect 196,000 more people would die from the disease and over 430 million people would be sickened by malaria each year.  The worry is that the rest of the world is not a tiny town in Senegal.  It will take immense amount of resources and with no vaccine there is no end in sight.