We in the news media aren’t always very good at covering issues of global disease like malaria, which kills about 850,000 people every year (about one every 38 seconds). But we’re amazingly proficient at covering celebrities. So when a marquee name is stricken with malaria, this is great news for the media…although, admittedly, not so great news for the celebrity in question. This is where I introduce you to my former travel buddy, who recently contracted malaria while on a trip to Sudan: George Clooney
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Malaria is still so widespread and lethal partly because it never gets adequate attention — so this seems a chance to try to remedy that. So with your help, we’re going to do both right now. Send in your questions for George and me about malaria, either about his case in particular or about the problem in general — or about why it is that so many still die in places like Sudan of a disease that we know how to eradicate. We’ll go through your questions, and George and I will answer the best during the week of January 30-February 5 and try to shine a light on the problem. And that mosquito that bit George will realize that it took a bite out of the wrong guy.
Nicholas D. Kristof/The New York Times Nicholas Kristof and George Clooney, who have both contracted malaria in Africa, experiencing happier and healthier times in Chad, 2009.
George was in South Sudan, one of the least developed places on earth, to call attention to the referendum there that may result in the region becoming an independent country — if warfare doesn’t break out first. George has put in place a satellite early warning system that aims to raise the cost of genocide or war crimes, and hopefully prevent them. Somewhere in Sudan, a mosquito carrying the parasite bit him, and he has just recovered. For my part, I suffered malaria in 1997 while reporting in eastern Congo. Note that malaria wasn’t a particular threat to either of us, because when treated quickly it is normally cured easily. But prevention and treatment don’t reach many people in poor countries.Malaria is still so widespread and lethal partly because it never gets adequate attention — so this seems a chance to try to remedy that. So with your help, we’re going to do both right now. Send in your questions for George and me about malaria, either about his case in particular or about the problem in general — or about why it is that so many still die in places like Sudan of a disease that we know how to eradicate. We’ll go through your questions, and George and I will answer the best during the week of January 30-February 5 and try to shine a light on the problem. And that mosquito that bit George will realize that it took a bite out of the wrong guy.
