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Niger Mother and Child

Contained panic shrouds the face of a mother whose child is suffering from malaria in Niger. Younger children are at higher risk of dying; their bodies have not developed enough immunity to fight the disease, which can infect their brains and kill them. Each day malaria claims the lives of about 3,000 children in Africa—one every 30 seconds. Researchers predict that in 2007, malaria will strike up to a half billion people worldwide. About a million—most under five years old and living in Africa—will die.

Photograph by Karen Kasmauski