This month, America celebrates Malaria Awareness Day. A silent killer, malaria is one of the most deadly diseases worldwide, yet it barely registers on the radar of the American public because it was eliminated here in 1951. In a December Gallup poll, only three out of ten Americans categorized it as a serious health concern.

The numbers tell a different story.

Each year, there are between 350 and 500 new cases of malaria, claiming more than 1 million lives. Over 40 percent of the world's population is at risk, but 90 percent of deaths occur in Africa, where malaria is the number one killer of children under five. Transmitted by mosquito bite, the disease kills over 3,000 children every day.

Malaria preys on the poorest of the poor and keeps them poor. Economists estimate that it costs Africa $12 billion a year in lost economic output. Often this means that the poor cannot afford the simple resources to protect themselves from the disease.

What's so frustrating about these numbers is that the world has known how to defeat malaria for a century. The tools are strikingly simple. A $10 long-lasting insecticide-treated bed net is a proven technology that literally saves lives. The mosquitoes that transmit malaria feed mostly at night, so a bed net is often all that is required to prevent malaria. When people are infected, Artemisinin, an herb-derived medicine, can treat the disease before it leads to the coma and death. It costs only a few dollars per treatment, but people living in the poorest regions of Africa lack access to the drug.

April 25th marks National Malaria Awareness Day. We have all but eliminated malaria in many regions of the world, including the United States. With the help of people across the country, we can end the cycle of malaria once and for all.