Larai Ibrahim
Nigeria

"I had malaria. The people at the clinic said I needed an ultra-sound to check something. I am not exactly sure what they are looking for, they need to check something. This is my second child. The first one died from malaria, so I worry a great deal about it all happening again to my child, to me".

Out of the roughly 25 million pregnant women living in tropical areas of Africa with endemic malaria, 10,000 die each year from the disease. When this figure is added to the 200,000 newborns dying each year due to malaria, the reality is one of staggering loss.

Pregnant women are more vulnerable to malaria because they attract more mosquitoes and because pregnancy reduces their acquired immunity. Infants, on the other hand, have not yet had the chance to develop immunity. In this way, malaria is a parasite that attacks the very foundations of families and communities.