Ok, I get it. If I had no eyelashes at all I would want some, but that's not how this stuff was marketed. The spokesperson was Brooke Shields, apparently in need of eyelashes to go with the brows. (This is not a Brooke Shields slam, or a heavy eyebrow slam. In the 80s my grandmother told me that I had Brooke Shields eyebrows, and I still do.)
Back to my rant point. Could we not do a little something more about malaria before putting money into studying and marketing an EYELASH drug?
- Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease.
- It is a public health problem today in more than 100 countries inhabited by some 2,400 million people — 40 percent of the world's population.
- Malaria is estimated to cause 300- 500 million clinical cases and over one million deaths each year.
- Every 30 seconds, a child somewhere dies of malaria. In any given year, nearly ten percent of the global population will suffer a case of malaria.
- Most survive after an illness of 10-20 days.
- Children are especially vulnerable to malaria. In Africa, where 80% of malaria cases are treated at home, the disease kills one child in twenty before the age of five.
- Pregnant women are also at high risk. They have an increase risk of disease and death, as well as adverse impacts for their developing babies- including low birth weight, growth retardation, still births and death.
- In African countries, up to 60% of hospital admissions may be for malaria; that's 6 out of 10 admissions!