It's hard to believe that the holiday season is coming up so soon. It's my favorite time of year; when I can stop, put work on hold and celebrate the important people in my life. As usual, I have plenty of gifts to buy for close friends and family. But this year I'm rethinking my holiday shopping list.
I recently traveled to the Central African Republic. Many people have never heard of CAR. I didn't know much about it either. It's a little smaller than Texas, with a population of about 5 million people. Just to put that in perspective -- more than 20 million people live in Texas.
CAR is landlocked in the center of the continent. The minister of health called his country "the heart of Africa" when I met him. I felt that in the people I spent time with.
I was in CAR to help distribute insecticide-treated mosquito nets with the United Nations Foundation's Nothing But Nets campaign and the global health organization PSI. Malaria is the leading killer of children under the age of five in the Central African Republic and is responsible for about half of all hospital visits.
The United Nations identified an urgent need for mosquito nets in CAR, due to its vulnerability to flooding, location, proximity to conflict-ridden countries, like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the fact that malaria is an issue pretty much year round.
Our goal was to launch the second of three phases of a distribution campaign to cover the entire country, providing a net to every family to protect them from malaria. Even though a net sounds so simple, insecticide-treated nets can prevent malaria transmission by up to 90% if used consistently and correctly.
My experience was life-changing, and the many special moments and people from my trip are always on my mind. I can't forget one family in particular.
One of the most-heartbreaking moments I experienced was when I visited a small clinic outside of Bangui, the capital city. The clinic staff sees an average of 40 patients with malaria every day. One of the patients I met was a beautiful baby girl. Her father, Remi, held her tight in his arms. You could barely hear him as he talked. At this point he was overcome with desperation. He was so scared and his face showed signs of many sleepless nights, worrying about how he would make his daughter well again. Her tiny body was limp and she was hot to the touch with a high fever and chills. Her malaria was in the advanced stages and she needed treatment urgently, but her parents couldn't afford it. This was the second time they had come to the clinic. The first time they came was when they found out their daughter was sick. They came back after the pediatric hospital turned them away because they couldn't pay. Remi had purchased a set of cheap syringes on their way back to the clinic, hoping doctors there would give him some medicine, which he would try to administer himself.
After my time with them, I broke off from the group to find a quiet corner and try to make sense of what I just witnessed. The love of these parents for their daughter was profound, matched only by their fear. I couldn't decide if I was more angry or sad. The reality is that there are countless families who find themselves in Remi's nightmare. And something as simple as $10 for a net could prevent this illness.
As I left, I was told that Remi's daughter would receive treatment. I only hope it wasn't too late.
Ten dollars may not sound like much, but the cost is too high for most people at risk of getting malaria, many of whom live on less than $1 a day. That $10 goes to Nothing But Nets to purchase a net, deliver it to a family, and educate communities on its importance and use. I'm trying to help them get a net to every family in the country by the end of the year -- and you can help, too. We're already more than half-way there.
As I said, the holidays are right around the corner. Join me in taking a minute, going to www.NothingButNets.net and donating $10 to send a net to the Central African Republic. You will be saving a life.
I know you mean well...but do you have any idea what happens to the nets there are sent over there?
They are used for everything ----- except preventing malaria.
Most commonly they are used for fishing.
People need to eat.
Then the chemicals leech into the water from the nets and as a result...poison the drinking supply.
This is happening all over Africa.
Happy Holidays.
Further should be mentioned the GUPPY (in tropical climates) or the GAMBUSIA (in colder climates), small live-bearers known for eating mosquitoes ("mosquito fish"). Into thousands of watery areas identified by satellite photo, drop little "bubbles" (water, in golf-ball-sized globes of quickly biodegradable cellophane-like material, each containing a pregnant mother guppy, etc.) which when released will take care of the problem in a few months.
This link will work:
http://wwwÂ.nothingbuÂtnets.net/
Ted talk lasers
You will see the first video at the very top left.
Nathan Myhrvold: Could this laser zap malaria?
(but of course someone had to resort to insults towards the author)
The nets don't work.
You think Mandy is the first to try this?
It's been done for many years...and it fails miserably EVERY TIME.
The people use them for fishing, for clothing, for everything except protecting them from malaria.
I find it ignorant to keep trying the same thing over and over again and expect different results.
Some would call that insanity.
This is why it is being kept out of Africa,,,the chemical companies won't make much money selling DDT to Africa, they have some nice shiny new product to sell. They want international aid spent on their products, so they are twisting arms.
I also caught wind of an initiative by some Bush stooges a few years ago to undermine the bednet program from within in favor of some kind of mass production program for a vaccine. When it exists. LOL. A little digging found there was ownership of a Chinese pharmaceutical firm involved by the major player involved. Fortunately the effort went nowhere, not that I am aware of anyway.
I am not kidding.
It was during one of those TED conferences.
Google it.
Crazy stuff.
For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
I can't personally speak to whether the science behind "Silent Spring" was dodgy, but if you don't get how pesticide resistance works and why it's important to not overdo it, I'm not confident about the rest of what you're selling.
Most groups which distribute nets also use complementary methods of eradication such as indoor residual spraying.
Since the pesticide companies are already in the net distribution loop, your claim would seem to be unfounded.
I wish I could do more for people. She may not be Bono, but she isn't some silly girl like many of these so called "celebrities".
If i wouldn't have read this- I wouldn't have donated, and now I am.
Lighten Up. =)
The nets are in fact treated with insecticides--usually a pyrethroid--sometimes in combination with a carbamate, which may cause some headache/dizziness. These nets do help prevent malaria because mosquitoes which cause malaria are night biting. (those which cause yellow fever, dengue and encephalitis bite in the daytime). All the organizations I have read about use impregnated nets in combination with indoor spraying.
It isn't enough just to prevent a bite. Malaria is spread by a mosquito biting an infected person, THEN biting a uninfected person, so the pesticide not only keeps the bite from happening, it kills the insect before it can bite someone else and breaks the chain of infection.
The results vary from area to area depending on the type of mosquito prevalent in the area. They would be more even more effective, but many of the people who get them won't use them.
Other means of reducing malaria are treating standing water, improving hygiene and overcrowding. Probably the reason I survived a number of malaria attacks when I was young was because I was well-nourished, lived in a clean house and had access to modern medical care AND it was before mosquitoes had become so aggressively infectious due to pesticide overuse.
Even so, it was a horrid, scary disease to get. I will be sending my contribution to this important effort.
Glad that you are helping more people know about it.
With simple steps people can make great strides.