I'm extremely grateful to be invited to share my voice alongside all these incredible women on International Women's Day. As an ambassador for the global health organization PSI (Population Services International), I've been fortunate to have traveled to places like the Central African Republic and Southern Sudan where I have met amazing women who rival the likes of the women on this site today.
Last fall, I traveled to the Central African Republic -- a country where malaria is responsible for approximately half of all hospital visits. I was there to help launch a United Nations Foundation's Nothing But Nets campaign that would provide a net to every family in need in the country.
As part of the trip, I visited a local health clinic in a rural part of the capital city, Bangui. There, I met a woman named Sophie who was with her husband and newborn baby. Her baby was inconsolable, crying from pain and hot to touch with a high fever. This was the second time Sophie had been at the clinic with her daughter. The first time her daughter she was only mildly ill, but the health clinic didn't have any anti-malaria treatment in stock. So they referred her to the local hospital, which was an expensive bus ride away. When Sophie arrived at the hospital she realized that they couldn't afford the medication. So she took the little remaining money she had and purchased syringes. Then she walked back to the rural health clinic and begged the doctor there to give them the medication for free. Sophie was willing to inject her daughter herself if she thought it could save her life.
That's when I met them. The health clinic had no medication, Sophie had no money, and her daughter's fever was worsening by the minute. Luckily, in her case, we were able to give her the money needed to return to the hospital by cab and purchase the right treatments.
That was the last time I saw Sophie and her baby. I often think of them and hope that they're okay. But I can't help but wonder what will happen the next time her daughter is bitten by a malaria-carrying mosquito, when there's no group of Westerners at the clinic willing to pay her way.
Thankfully, there's hope for mothers like her. Long-lasting, insecticide-treated mosquito nets are one of the most cost-effective and cost-efficient ways of preventing malaria. Nets can prevent malaria transmission by up to 90 percent, and through the Nothing But Nets campaign that I helped launch, the government of Central African Republic and its partners at PSI and UNICEF were able to distribute nearly 1 million mosquito nets -- one for every family in need.
At the same time, thanks to a grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the local health clinic where I met Sophie is now able to provide preventative malaria treatment to pregnant women, free of charge. Malaria contributes to the deaths of an estimated 10,000 pregnant women and 200,000 infants each year in Africa, so early and effective treatment can prevent a great majority of deaths.
But tackling malaria in a country like the Central African Republic is a huge uphill battle, and my experiences there have been a healthy dose of reality, fueling my own sense of urgency to do my part in reducing the preventable suffering of the incredible women I met. This year, I will be attending the Clinton Global Initiative University, a meeting for students and national youth organizations to tackle pressing global issues. I am excited about being a part of this growing community of young leaders who don't just discuss the world's challenges, but take real, concrete steps toward solving them -- real, concrete steps to empower women like Sophie to protect herself and her family.
The problem with malaria has many aspects. To me the most important is that people do not take preventive measures seriously. Most Ugandans accept malaria as a matter of fact and take medicines or end up in hospital after being infected.
Why people do not apply preventive measures is a psychological thing. It’s probably discounting. My parents in law are both teachers, educated in Australia yet they regularly fall sick with the disease.
I used to live in Ghana for a year where I nearly died of malaria even though I was taking the drugs my doctor at home had advised me. In Uganda I decided a different approach. Apart from sleeping under a net I bath an hour before sunset then put on long sleeves and trousers. I put repellent on my feet, hands and head and I’ve not had any malaria in the 21 months I’ve been in Uganda over the past 7 years.
When I tell my Ugandan friends they respond with “You don’t live here, if you would you also would get malariaâ€. The fact that my stay has now reached almost 2 years of the past 7 years simply has no impact. I think the problems with malaria resemble the way many people in the Western World deal with health issues like smoking, obesity, etc.
Another common sight in Africa is raw sewage, that's where mosquitoes breed. That's another place to work on.
Nets are a must.
Rowsdower, I believe you are incorrect, actually the use of DDT was very effective and Malaria only reoccured after DDT use was stopped. From the report cited above,
"In the early 1960s, several developing countries had nearly wiped out malaria. After they stopped using the insecticide, other control methods had only modest success and malaria came raging back. In one of many examples, in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), DDT spraying had reduced malaria cases from 2.8 million in 1948 to 17 by 1963. After spraying was stopped in the wake of the uproar after the publication of Silent Spring, the number of cases exploded to 2.5 million. Malaria still kills about one million people a year, mainly children, and primarily in Africa, despite the decades-long effort to eradicate it without DDT. Many scientists and some environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the EDF, have recently urged that the use of pesticide be reconsidered, because its effectiveness is unrivaled and it causes minimal collateral damage when properly applied. In 2006, after millions of preventable deaths, the World Health Organization reversed course and endorsed the use of the insecticide as one effective way to control malaria (Roberts 2010)."
Potential mechanisms of action on humans are genotoxicity and endocrine disruption. DDT may be directly genotoxic,[45] but may also induce enzymes to produce other genotoxic intermediates and DNA adducts.[45] It is an endocrine disruptor; The DDT metabolite DDE acts as an antiandrogen (but not as an estrogen). p,p'-DDT, DDT's main component, has little or no androgenic or estrogenic activity.[45] Minor component o,p'-DDT has weak estrogenic activity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT
The solution then is simple, don't overuse it. Insecticide use here in the states is highly regulated and the directions for proper use are on every container. I suspect other countries have the ability to pass similar regulations.