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Posts tagged "World Malaria Day"

Illustrating a statistic: PCV Ben Gascoigne helps his village see how much money they spend on malaria prevention every year.

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Reflections on Malaria

So. Malaria. Basically, a person gets malaria from the bite of a mosquito infected with Plasmodium parasites. The parasites get into the bloodstream, mess up the red blood cells, and start making the person all feverish and then really, really sick. If another uninfected mosquito bites that sick person then that mosquito becomes infected and can pass on  Plasmodium parasites to the next person it bites. 
Image thanks to iayork.com
Only female Anopheles mosquitoes can infect humans with the Plasmodiumparasites that cause malaria. (Italics because it’s the Latin name,not because I’m trying to be extra emphatic.) There are different strains of Plasmodium parasites, some more dangerous than others, and here in Senegal we have mostly Plasmodium falciparum, which is pretty much the worst kind. You can avoid getting malaria by taking prophylactic medications like doxycycline, mephloquine (Lariam), or atovaquone (Malarone). If, for whatever reason, these medications aren’t an option you can reduce your chances of getting malaria by using insect repellent, sleeping under a bed net, and getting rid of standing water and other mosquito breeding grounds. 
If you do get malaria there are effective, affordable treatments available, even in places with  chloroquine-resistant malaria, like Senegal. Our Health Center is usually well-stocked with government- and NGO-subsidized Malaria Rapid Tests and Coartem medication packs, especially during rainy season, when most malaria cases happen. Here are photos of the Coartem for adults that Peace Corps gave me (but which I will hopefully never need because I’m good about taking my prophylaxis) and also of a pack of Coartem for children that’s available at the Health Center. 

This past Wednesday was World Malaria Day, and people all around the world did activities and held events to acknowledge the damage caused by malaria and to raise awareness of how to prevent malaria. In Salémata, my village, Wednesday was also when our Health Center has its monthly vaccination and growth monitoring activities. We didn’t do anything huge because it was already a pretty busy day, but we did have an informal causerie discussion with the mothers who had brought their babies to be weighed and vaccinated and who were just hanging out, waiting for the nurse to call them up. Adama Dioulde Diallo, one of the women who does community outreach  Salémata, used  my little set of info cards to give little presentations on how to properly use and care for Long-Lasting Insecticide-Treated Nets (LLINs) and we talked about setting up a bednet care-and-repair activity sometime soon.  
Adama Dioulde Diallo
If you like maps and are interested in learning a little more about malaria, please check out the CDC’s fantastic Interactive Malaria Map. It’s neat. 

- PC Senegal, LaRocha LaRiviere

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Senegal: In Sare Coly Salle (in the Kolda region of Senegal), people from Sare Coly Salle, Sare Yoba Niane, Passa Maounde and Sinthiang Mandou came with nets from their house hold. 50 women and 1 man repaired and washed a total of 146 nets. Throughout the event, there were drums, dancing, fataya’s and a theater group who did a 15 minute long series of educational sketches about malaria prevention. The event was facilitated by PCVs Sarah Kuech, Meredith Hickson and Ben Kramer and Local Health Workers Djibi Mballo and Miriama Mballo.

Senegal: In Sare Coly Salle (in the Kolda region of Senegal), people from Sare Coly Salle, Sare Yoba Niane, Passa Maounde and Sinthiang Mandou came with nets from their house hold. 50 women and 1 man repaired and washed a total of 146 nets. Throughout the event, there were drums, dancing, fataya’s and a theater group who did a 15 minute long series of educational sketches about malaria prevention. The event was facilitated by PCVs Sarah Kuech, Meredith Hickson and Ben Kramer and Local Health Workers Djibi Mballo and Miriama Mballo.

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Madagascar: PCVs help teach crowds now to make neem lotion, a natural mosquito repellent, during a World Malaria Day rally. 

Madagascar: PCVs help teach crowds now to make neem lotion, a natural mosquito repellent, during a World Malaria Day rally. 

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April 2012, Burkina Faso Training of Trainers: Volunteers and their counterparts put on malaria awareness and prevention skits during training of trainers sessions. In this scene, PCV Adam’s character develops severe malaria because it was not treated right away. 

April 2012, Burkina Faso Training of Trainers: Volunteers and their counterparts put on malaria awareness and prevention skits during training of trainers sessions. In this scene, PCV Adam’s character develops severe malaria because it was not treated right away. 

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Waduto wariw lwedo watiek tuo mar malaria

Together we continue to get rid of malaria.

Today in Kenya, 72 children will die of a Malaria infection.

In America we don’t learn much about Malaria because it was eradicated in the 1950s. The disease is caused by a parasite, Plasmodium Falciparum, and it is passed to humans through a mosquito. At my clinic almost half of the patients who are under the age of five come to be treated for malaria infections. I have seen children who are lying listless on a hospital bed that don’t even flinch when an IV line is inserted and can hardly open their eyes.  When I heard of World Malaria Day on April 25th, I knew it was something I wanted to celebrate and bring awareness to the people of my village.

I started with my high school health club. I asked them what they wanted to do and we started to organize an original song about malaria, a dance, and a drama. I then spoke with the sisters to get their support and to help mobilize the community. We spent weeks going around to different community groups and leader to tell them about the even we were planning. Next I needed funding for some chairs, a tent, and to set up a PA system the day of the event. I got help from the district officials to fund my event and instead of hosting it at the district headquarters I was able to convince them to make my tiny village the official host of the World Malaria Day event for the entire district! 

Over 500 people from my community and from the district offices came on the day of the event. We set up our tents and chairs in the soccer field across from the clinic and my health club provided dancing and entertainment throughout the day. I had my health club students assist me with translating a few phrases into the local dialect to put on posters for the event. Unfortunately as I was transferring those phrases onto the posterboard, I had difficulty deciphering which letters were which and a community member had to tell me that instead of writing “to prevent malaria in Pregnancy” on one of the posters I had written “to prevent malaria in a sexually transmitted disease.” 

We offered free testing and treatment for Malaria and people were lined up outside the clinic doors for hours to be seen.  We gave out over 80 mosquito nets to pregnant mothers and children as well as encouraged people to allow their homes to be sprayed in the next following days to kill mosquitos. It was a great opportunity to bring awareness to this disease and to work together as a community. 

At the end of the day one of my health club members turned to me and asked “Is there a World AIDs Day?” Yes Bilha, there is…

- PCV Christina Gusa

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