The day(s) I saved lives…
Malaria Awareness: Mosquito Bed Net Care and Repair Tourney
First off, I want to rant off some startling facts about Malaria:
3.2 Billion People, almost half of the world’s population are at risk of malaria, and 1.2 billion are at high risk.
Globally, in 2013, there were:
-198 million cases of Malaria
-90% of all malaria deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa
-78% of the aforementioned deaths occurred in children under five years of age
-97 countries have on-going malaria transmission
-80% of the estimated malaria deaths occur in 18 of most affected Countries
Between 2001-2013, an estimated 4.2 million lives were saved as a result of a scale-up of malaria interventions. 97%, 4.1 million, of these lives saved are in the under-five age group in sub-saharan Africa.
Let’s relate those numbers and bring it home..
Nearly 750,000 deaths per year (90% in Africa), which is more than the population of Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota or Alaska.
Does anyone remember what a big fuss Ebola was/is? Do you remember how worked up everyone got about the deaths and the transmissions? Do you remember how once it started spreading, to the motherland (heaven forbid that a disease that is wiping out people in Africa come to the United States), people started funding and developing treatments and vaccinations? Well, I would love to put Malaria in perspective with Ebola for you all to grasp the gravity of Malaria…
In 2014, there were 4,877 deaths from Ebola, and Malaria kills an estimated 1.2 MILLION people a year. Heh. A little discrepant in our reaction for the Ebola outbreak and lackthereof for Malaria? I think yes.
Senegal’s Population: 13.7 Million
Percent at Risk for Malaria: 100%
Estimated Malaria Cases: 3.8 Million
Health Education Reached in 2011: 6.8 Million
Estimated Bed Net Usage in 2009: 27%
Estimated Bed Net Usage in 2011: 61%
People Visiting Clinic at First Symptoms in 2009: 30%
People Visiting Clinic at First Symptoms in 2011: 63%
The above statics are from various sources including nomoremalaria.org, WHO, UNICEF, and the CDC. Sorry for the poorly sited statistics, but this was just meant to inform you all of the crisis, not as an official report.
Below is a link discussing Malaria facts from WHO:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs094/en/
Please visit the site below to see the WHO’s statistics covering Senegal’s Malaria situation to better understand the gravity of behavior change and educational outreach for eliminated malaria.
Other interesting health statistics by UNICEF can be found at the link below:
In 2011, Peace Corps Senegal joined together with all of the other
Peace Corps Africa countries to finally “Stomp Out Malaria” in Africa.
Currently it is the number one cause of death in Senegal, and much of
the entire population lives in high-transmission zones. There are over
3,000 volunteers across the continent who, like me, are working to bring malaria deaths in Senegal to zero by 2020. You can check out some of the cool projects being done at http://stompoutmalaria.org/ . Even though World Malaria Day is April 25th, the rainy season in Senegal is from July-October (ish) and Malaria season is at the peak June-December (ish). The southern regions, like my region, Kolda, are at the highest risk for Malaria. Volunteers take malaria prophylactics and sleep under bed nets to mitigate the risk of malaria. But, prophylactics are not feasible for the African population because not only of the cost and the long term side effects but also the mosquitos that would carry the parasite responsible would become resistant and immune to the medications, creating a superbug, making it that much, much harder for malaria to be treated and eliminated. (Think the penicillin and other antibiotics issue we face in the States and in other developed countries that over prescribe antibiotics.. pretty scary stuff.)
 |
| Nate, Vanessa and Hoyo in Sare Guiro. Nate showing off his fancy beautification hole patch. |
Africans, and I am speaking from my Senegalese standards, are encouraged to sleep under bed nets because the mosquitos that carry the malaria parasite, Anopheles, are out and about during the hours of dusk to dawn, thus the transmission is the highest during these times; ergo the importance of sleeping under a bed net. A Presidential Campaign went into effect a few years ago, where the health posts go out and do a monthly vaccination for the children five and under during the rainy season to help prevent the child mortality rate, and women who are pregnant get a similar medication during their pre-natal visits. Free. These two groups are given preventive medication because they are the highest risk for malaria.
Although there are numerous campaigns encouraging and educating the people about malaria and bed nets as a preventive method, it is a behavior change that is hard to make a paradigm switch. I will be the first to admit, those nets are HOTTTT when you are sleeping under them and when it is already miserably hot (I have yet to experience a day that wasn’t…) without the extra bed net heat, convincing people to have sleepless nights enduring the heat is extremely hard. If I wasn’t so concerned about the creepy crawly things that come out at night crawling on me, I think I would almost be willing to sleep without a bed net, too, because how hot it is. And, that isn’t good. If only there were a way to make the nets impregnated with the insecticide, impenetrable by mosquitos, and lightweight and airy #bigdreams But, that fabric has yet been discovered to manufacture bed nets. (to my knowledge..)
Let’s talk about the Kolda Bed Net Care and Repair Tourney I participated in!
 |
| During one of the causeries educating people about the importance of bed net care and repair, malaria transmission, symptoms and treatment and social responsibilities in the fight against malaria. |
A few years ago, there was a universal bed net dispersement and little by little every region and every village should have received free bed nets to fight against malaria. Since then, Peace Corps Volunteers do Bed Net Care and Repair Bike Tourneys within their Regions to reach out to villages, wash the nets, sew up any holes and make any desired changes that would encourage the behavior change for sleeping under the nets. The tourney is still going on, but last week my work zone did my three villages, and a few other villages in my in my work zone. Now, we are just missing Abigail’s and Brandon’s to finish up our work zone tourney. It was a great experience, not only because it was the first time that I had guests out to my site and got to experience special treatment and “good” food at my site, but working beside volunteers that have been here long and have better language skills and have acquired more vocabulary not only inspired me to work harder, but I learned at lot along the way.
 |
| After the last day of the tourney, leaving the site we had to bike in a downpour around 10k through bush trials resulting in a very messy bike and wardrobe that may never be rid of the sand. |
I went to four villages during the tourney, and I plan to do more when Brandon gets back to Senegal and when Abigail's start. It is hard work though! My back still hurts from leaning over sewing up countless holes in nets, transforming rectangle nets to circle nets, adding fabric to make it more eye-appealing or to patch up big holes. We had to encourage the people that owned their nets to do the work themselves and we would just help speed up the process. If we just showed up and did all the work, they wouldn’t be taking ownership of their health, and who knows when the next time a toubab will show up to do something similar. They shouldn’t wait for a toubab to come to take care of their nets and thus their health, they need to learn to take initiative. So, not only did we bring materials to wash, sew, and beautify the nets, we also had causeries telling them exactly how they should care for their net AND why they need to take action. Most people who have nets, were not necessarily informed on the proper techniques of bed net care. For instance, because the bed nets are impregnanted with a long lasting insecticide, they can’t use detergent, they have to use ordinary soap, and they have to be dried in the shade, out of the sun. They shouldn’t be washed more than two times a year, but if there is a lot of dirt on the nets, they dirt prevents the insecticide from being as effective and thus not killing the mosquitos that land on it, which if it is clean, helps prevent transmission. Another thing that is extremely important we talked about is illustrating that is isn’t one person’s responsibility for their health, it is a whole community’s responsibility. If one person allows a mosquito to bite him/her and transmit the parasite into his/her bloodstream, then that blood is infected, and when another mosquito comes along and bites that person, that mosquito becomes infected and then bites another person, infecting the other person.. it is a tragically devastating ripple effect. So, if someone knows that someone in the community isn’t sleeping under a bed net, doesn’t own a bed net, or doesn’t take proper care of the bed net, they have to call that person(s) out on their behavior. That person isn’t only putting his/her own health into jeopardy, but the entire communities.
 |
| My bike after the last day, minus a lot of the wet sand. |
A lot of Peace Corps is getting the community to take ownership, whether it be their finances, education, health, development projects, etc., and this is a great example of how we are here to help them take ownership of their health by chastising those who are endangering their own health, and thus the health of the community.
One of the most important, in the moment, parts of the tourney is having an ASC at each event. An ASC is a health worker that is allowed to test for malaria and give out medication if they test positive. During the tourney we have numerous people who tested positive and got their medication, essentially saving their lives.
All in the day’s work of a Peace Corps Volunteer.
#credibility
No comments:
Post a Comment