Hello all, sorry for the very long blog hiatus, but I’ve been having lots of adventures, near and far! I am now back at site and have internet, so expect lots of updates about my recent travels in the next few weeks. I would like to kick off my return to my blog with a contribution to Peace Corps Mozambique’s Stomp Out Malaria Initiative. April is world malaria month and as Peace Corps volunteers in Africa, malaria is a dreaded yet very present element of our lives. Let me paint you a picture of the malaria situation in Mozambique, and more specifically in my community.
Of the plethora of deadly diseases in Africa, Malaria is the most lethal of them all in Mozambique. Not AIDS, not mal nutrition, but malaria. It accounts for the most deaths country wide and is responsible for approximately 46% of all deaths of children under 5. Those most vulnerable are those who are HIV positive, pregnant women, and children. Furthermore, of the various types of malaria in existence, Mozambique hosts the most dangerous kind, associated with cerebral malaria and most difficult to cure in advanced stages. I’m definitely not a doctor or very scientifically inclined, but here goes my malaria breakdown. There are two main vectors to infection: humans and mosquitos, and both need to be present to maintain an epidemic. In Mozambique, malaria is transmitted year round, and although many people reach levels of immunity, 100% of the population is at risk. The immunity that people born and raised in the country acquire is not always effective against the disease, and women lose this immunity when they become pregnant, putting themselves and their unborn child at risk. The Mozambican malaria culprit is the female anopheles mosquito. They like fresh clean water, feed between 6pm and 6am, and can travel up to four kilometers. Once infected, a host may not exhibit symptoms, but is still capable of transmitting the disease through mosquito bites to others. The symptoms further complicate the situation as they include headache, fever, nausea, body aches, fatigue, and at a more extreme level, anemia, kidney failure, and coma. As you can see the majority of symptoms could be attributed to any number of ailments, or basically daily life in Africa, and many people wait too long before being tested, thinking they may just have eaten something bad or have the flu. However, the saddest part about the malaria situation, is that the disease is preventable, manageable, and survivable with the right resources, resources that are not available or not utilized by much of the population. For example, despite the constant stream of potentially malaria infected patients, the local health clinic in my community is frequently out of malaria tests and treatment medication.
Just two weeks ago, the baby of a close friend of mine was diagnosed with malaria. He had a dangerously high fever and was not recovering. His frightened mother waited 5 hours at the clinic just to be told that they had run out of medication. She then traveled to the nearest town, but that clinic’s medical stores had also been depleted. She tried three more rural health clinics with no luck, and having wasted two critical days, returned downtrodden and worried to her home. The next morning, she made the long and expensive trip in to the Provincial capital, but none of the public clinics could help her. She was forced to go to an expensive private clinic, where she spent nearly ¼ of her family’s monthly income on the medicine her baby needed. Others are not so lucky. Others do not have the resources to travel to the city or to purchase medicine from private clinics. Others live too far from health centers to be tested, and still other are too scared of the testing process and of the potential results to make the trek to the hospital. However, there is hope in this situation. Malaria had been eradicated in many locations around the world, and hopefully one day Mozambique will also find itself rid of this deadly burden. Efforts are constantly being made to decrease infection, and by spreading awareness, hopefully the world will take an interest and help Africa deal with its most dangerous killer. We are working towards this dream in many ways. Through wide-spread mosquito net distribution, the disease can be greatly controlled. In areas where 80% of the population sleeps under nets, malaria infection is typically reduced by 50 %. Early diagnoses and treatment is also important. As humans are a vector, identifying, quarantining, and treating those infected with malaria, keeps the disease from being transmitted to others in the vicinity. Furthermore, efforts to help pregnant women avoid malaria are being made. As pregnant women lose their native immunity, they are provided with two doses of prophylaxes and bed nets, free of charge. However, both doses must be taken, and as many women live very far from health centers, only 10% actually complete the dosages. As part of Peace Corps’ Stomp Out Malaria imitative, volunteers are working at a grassroots level to reduce malaria in our thousands of sites throughout Africa and are conducting online awareness campaigns to spread the word! As lack of information and resources is the main problem in my community, I am working on a local health fair highlighting the dangers, means of transmission, and ways of preventing and treating malaria. The fair will include a bed-net give away and will hopefully help contribute in a small, yet meaningful way to Stomping Out Malaria in Africa! I am truly lucky not to have had malaria so far (KNOCKING ON JUST ABOUT EVERY WOODEN SURFACE IN MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW), but many of my fellow volunteers have felt the painful wrath of anopheles mosquito. From what I hear, it is one of the most miserable experiences of one’s life, and I am hoping to make it through this last 7 months of my service malaria free. Much love to you all, and if you are lucky enough to be reading this from a malaria free zone be thankful!
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