Buzz and Bite Highlighted In New Malaria Museum

Animated PSAs help combat disease.

2014-04-25

OTTAWA, ON, April 25, 2014 (Press-News.org) Chocolate Moose Media's Buzz and Bite public service announcements (PSA) have had a profound effect combatting the spread of malaria around the world. Now the series will be featured in a new museum in Dublin, Ireland, dedicated to malaria.

Buzz and Bite comprises 30 animated spots of either 30 or 60 seconds that feature two female anopheles (malaria-carrying) mosquitos. Creator and company president Firdaus Kharas uses humour as the two winged characters try to infect every human on the planet. The series teaches about the value of insecticide-treated sleeping nets and avoiding the times of day when mosquitos are most active, among other lessons.

The PSAs will be a mainstay of the Malaria Museum, according to director Vanessa Breen, which opens today, April 25, to coincide with World Malaria Day 2014.

The space in Dublin's Tropical Medical Bureau will be a pop-up (temporary) event, but information, education and artifacts about the disease will be housed permanently online at http://malariamuseum.com.

"We feature an original print of the 1943 military booklet published by the US Army for soldiers in the Pacific, one of the earliest works by Theodore Geisel who later became famous as Dr. Seuss. We consider Firdaus Kharas to be the modern equivalent and are delighted to include his series of animations," Breen says.

Malaria kills 625,000 people every year, mostly in Africa. Buzz and Bite was launched at United Nations' headquarters in 2008 and has been translated and broadcast in 39 languages that reach about 80 percent of the world's population most at risk.

Kharas says: "I am absolutely delighted that there is a malaria museum to spotlight this preventable disease that kills far-too many children and adults each year. I congratulate all those who have created the museum for their efforts to save lives. I am convinced that with concerted actions including widespread education malaria can be eradicated in the next decade."

About Chocolate Moose Media

Chocolate Moose Media is the world's leading producer of animated behaviour-change communications aimed at solving health and social issues around the world. It produces film and animated television with offices in Geneva, Switzerland, and Ottawa, Canada. President Firdaus Kharas uses proceeds from for-profit projects to fund not-for-profit campaigns targeting health and other social issues. These are in the form of animated public service announcements and include Peabody-award winner The Three Amigos (combating HIV/AIDS); Buzz and Bite (preventing the spread of malaria); No Excuses (targeting sexual and domestic violence); and the upcoming Solar Campaign (replacing kerosene lamps with solar lights). Together, the campaigns are available in over 100 languages.

About the Malaria Museum

The Malaria Museum opened on April 25, 2014, World Malaria Day, in Dublin, Ireland's Tropical Medical Bureau. While the pop-up museum will make Dublin part of a global conversation about malaria, the museum's website will remain a permanent virtual space to bring together the different voices from around the world that are working to end the disease. It will combine scientific information with a unique, offbeat visual style to educate and entertain visitors in the life cycle of the parasite, the history and medications used to combat it.

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Buzz and Bite Highlighted In New Malaria Museum

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