Do you know when malaria was eliminated from Australia or how many deaths were due to malaria in 2015?
While malaria is not a disease most Australians need to worry about, every day more than 1000 African children die from this devastating disease.
Australia has a long history of contributing to global malaria research efforts and Griffith University researchers are at the forefront of this area.
To acknowledge World Malaria Day this week, our researchers are encouraging the public to think about this disease and “to recognise that we are all a part of the solution”.
As Queensland’s leading malaria research university scientists from the Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD) and the Institute for Glycomics are committed to achieving a world without malaria through drug discovery and vaccines.
To help get their message out, GRIDD researchers have put together an online quiz asking people how much they know about malaria.
“Most people don’t know that Australia was declared malaria free in the 1980s,” says Dr Tina Skinner-Adams, a malaria drug-discovery researcher from GRIDD.
“We are determined to raise public awareness in Australia about this globally important disease.”
In addition to the online quiz (found here), GRIDD researchers are distributing educational packs on malaria to school children and raising money for Rotarians Against Malaria to providemosquito bed nets to vulnerable populations worldwide.
The volunteer organisation also partners with otherother malaria elimination initiatives within the Rotary family, including the Malaria Vaccine Projectwhich supports the development of what could be the world’s first malaria vaccine of its kindat the Institute for Glycomics.
To donate to malaria research, click here for GRIDD and here for the Institute for Glycomics. For more information about World Malaria Day activities at GRIDD email [email protected].