Friday, January 21, 2011
The net is buzzing today with stories about George Clooney being deathly ill with malaria. Well, it’s not true.
Clooney did have malaria, in fact he has had it twice, but his reps have released a statement trying to clear everything up.
“George is completely over the Malaria he contracted while in the Sudan during the first week in January. This illustrates how with proper medication, the most lethal condition in Africa, can be reduced to bad ten days instead of a death sentence."
Clooney was in Sudan last week with execs from Google and the United Nations to work on stopping a new civil war in the troubled country. Clooney is well known for his interest and trips to that region including the Sudan and Darfur.
It should shame us that a condition that takes thousands of lives each year in the region can be treated so cheaply and routinely as to turn it into a ten day discomfort.
Malaria is a parasitic disease that involves high fevers, shaking, chills, flu-like symptoms and death, and is caused by a parasite that is transmitted from one human to another by the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes.
