Social media envoys to post and tweet for malaria control, UN official says

(March 17, 2010) The United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria on Monday launched a new group of high-profile Internet users, to inspire and involve social media audiences in the effort to combat the disease. The UN Special Envoy for Malaria, Ray Chambers, said the group's members will utilize their social profile to focus online and offline media audiences, on the movement, milestones and resources required, to achieve the goal of providing all endemic African countries with malaria control interventions by the end of 2010. “In our efforts to reach the 2010 goal of universal bed net coverage, and to reach the longer term goal of near-zero deaths from malaria by 2015, it is critical that acceleration continue in the malaria control movement,” said Chambers.
About 3.3 billion people – half of the world's population – are at risk of malaria, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Every year, this leads to about 250 million malaria cases and nearly one million deaths. The Social Media Envoys will take one social action, such as a tweet on Twitter, or a post on Facebook, in support of malaria eradication efforts each month for 12 months, starting on World Malaria Day on 25 April.