Word: malariae
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...when Marathon Oil decided in 2002 to expand its natural-gas operations to Bioko (pop. 250,000), just off the coast of Equatorial Guinea, company managers focused their attention on the region's crippling malaria rate. Marathon concluded that protecting only its employees and contractors wouldn't be enough. Because mosquitoes will bite anybody and Marathon expects the island facility to be productive for 40 years or more, the company adopted a more ambitious goal: it is working with its business partner Noble Energy, nonprofit organizations and the Equatoguinean government to stop transmission of the disease on the island within...
...bendiocarb was launched to interrupt the cycle of transmission. (Small amounts of the chemical are applied directly to walls where mosquitoes like to linger.) At the same time, the Ministry of Health of Equatorial Guinea introduced the use of artemisinin-based combination therapy, the new standard of treatment for malaria in the underdeveloped world...
...first time Marathon (2005 revenues: $63 billion) has ever undertaken a large public-health project, but results have so far exceeded expectations. In just the first two years, the number of infected mosquitoes has fallen 95%, and the number of children 2 to 15 years old with malaria parasites in their blood has dropped from 45% to 26%. (The decline in children lags that of mosquitoes because it takes a while to clear parasites from previous infections.) And malaria cases among Marathon personnel have dropped from 20 to 30 a month to two or three a month...
...broadly collaborative approach is working elsewhere in Africa as well. BHP Billiton (2005 revenues: $32 billion), an international petroleum and mining company, joined a similar partnership of businesses, charities and government organizations to decrease malaria rates in southern Mozambique, where the conglomerate has an aluminum smelter...
There's still a lot more to do. Health officials believe that using present-day tools and know-how could cut the malaria death rate in African countries 50%. The President's Malaria Initiative, announced by the Bush Administration in 2005, has pledged $1.2 billion for the effort over the next five years. For its part, Marathon helped the Equatoguinean government apply for a $26 million grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria to expand the campaign to the rest of Equatorial Guinea. Clearly it is a good policy for business--and even better for people...