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Deaths from malaria are preventable
2006-05-23 08:32:09
By Editor
Malaria is estimated to infect between 300 to 500 million people a year, globally. A million of them die, mostly infants and babies.
Statistics sadly indicate that of the deaths, more than 80 per cent occur in Africa.
In Tanzania alone, statistics are shocking. According to medical and United Nations development Programme (UNDP), up to 17 million people in Tanzania suffer from malaria each year with about 100, 000 deaths, mostly children and pregnant women.
A host of initiatives has been put in place to fight Africa’s leading killer disease.
However, a substantial percentage of the energy in the initiatives basically dwells on attempts to treat the disease and proportionately very little is done on the preventive front.
If efforts are targeted at the eradication of mosquito breeding grounds and the use of treated mosquito nets to prevent bites and the eventual transmission of the malaria causing parasites, the cost benefit analysis would certainly be realised.
Less people will fall ill and the cost of treatment and the loss of man-hours will be alleviated.
Consider this, malaria is the leading cause of outpatient hospital visits in Tanzania and drains 3.4 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
At least a third of all the outpatients at hospitals and clinics are malaria related.
The cost of malaria is enormous. The disease interrupts daily life by keeping adults away from work and children from school.
Prevention, we believe is the most effective approach in dealing with malaria. With better prevention strategies in place – by the government, NGOs, groups and individuals - the disease could be checked.
Consider Dar es Salaam with pools of stagnant water, thickets and plastic containers which litter the city’s environs.These are breeding grounds for malaria.
Public awareness campaign on the need for a clean environment is a prerequisite. In fact, council by-laws could go along way in environmental cleanliness and sustainability.
It is our belief, with an effective prevention crusade, more than half of malaria infection and death is preventable.
It is encouraging that the government has now lifted a 14-year-old ban DDT that had almost helped eradicate malaria in Tanzania prior to the ban.
Of course more research is needed but we believe that this is one of the viable options in the war on malaria.
Insecticide treated nets could also remarkably reduce the occurrence of the disease if distributed to the most vulnerable – children and expectant mothers.
But most inspiring here is that Tanzania born technology is being used to make nets which repel mosquitoes.
A Dar es Salaam based firm is the first factory on the African continent to use the new technology to make long lasting insecticide treated nets.
Prevention should be the catch word in the fight against malaria.
Educate wananchi on hazards of plastic containers.
The continued presence of used plastic containers and bags in various parts of our cities and towns, proves two things – either public awareness on their negative impact on the environment has not been fully absorbed, or the recycling rate of the items does not keep pace with the rate at which users discard them.
This situation is becoming an issue of some serious concern to environmentalists whose options appear so limited. One only banks on government intervention.
The government, has already shown that it’s more than willing to intervene, it in fact has already, after banning the importation of certain types of the plastic bags as well as imposing a 100 per cent tax on very large plastic bags and containers that are imported.
In addition, come next month, the ban on the sale of mineral water in small plastic bags will become effective.
But all these measures may not be sufficient to arrest the discarding rate of used plastic bags and containers on our landscape.
Measures should aim at creating more enabling conditions for the establishment of plastic recycling plants.
The measures could include tax free importation of plant and machinery as well as for other essential inputs.
The idea is to rid urban areas of the eyesore, in the name of polythene bags virtually at every place. These clog streams, canals and sewers as they compete for space with liquid waste.
Lest we forget, plastic materials are also hazardous to human health when burnt haphazardly.
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