Malaria, Mosquitos, and Motivation | Kritika Singh | TEDxTJHSST

Malaria is one of the oldest and deadliest known diseases in human history, but we have underestimated this disease for ages. Studies report that malaria is responsible for half of all human deaths since mankind! While we have attempted various cures, successfully eliminated malaria in some parts of the world, or contained the spread of malaria in many other parts, the disease continues to infect 300 million people every year, killing over 700,000 and half of them are a combination of children under 5 and pregnant women. The inability of our research and scientific community to get rid of malaria is not only due to the complexities with which the malaria mosquito and parasite has evolved, but also due to how we have managed the disease. It is the socioeconomic, medical, and cultural challenges that need to be understood and analyzed in-concert to outsmart the malaria mosquito and parasite. It is the interplay of these factors that make this topic very intriguing.

Kritika Singh is a malaria researcher, and a junior at TJHSST. She founded Malaria Free World (a 501c3 non-profit organization) to raise awareness about malaria research and eradication efforts. Malaria Free World aims to get more youth involved in the fight against malaria. Kritika has organized many educational events and launched several programs to get everyone excited about a malaria free world. She is also actively studying the socioeconomic, medical, and cultural challenges that need to be understood to outsmart the malaria mosquito and parasite to help the world get rid of the deadliest disease in history. And one question remains, why hasn't malaria been eradicated yet?