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Fighting malaria proves tough
2008-05-04 10:04:52
By Staff Reporter and Correspondent Gabriella John
A Form V student was attacked by a serious bout of malaria three years ago. He uttered certain unintelligible words that sent shockwaves to his parents who quickly believed that their son was bewitched. Neighbours too were alarmed.
The services of witchdoctors were immediately sought and as urgently six of them grouped at the Vingunguti residence of the family on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam and started treating the boy.
They covered him with a nasty mixture of concoctions to remove evil spirits believed to have attacked him. Nothing happened, and actually his situation was aggravating.
In the neighbourhood there was a medical doctor who heard about the prevailing situation and she immediately called at the compound of the family to see for herself. She begged the parents to allow her to take the boy for further medical diagnosis.
It was found that the student was suffering from a case of acute malaria! As luck would have it the boy was admitted at a city hospital and after a few days of treatment he fully recovered.
Today the boy is doing his second year at the university, and his parents always look on the doctor who saved his life as God-sent.
``Thank you so much doctor. The life of our young man would have perished had you not timely intervened.
We don`t know how to repay you, and we doubt whether we`ll ever seek witchdoctors,`` said Samson Nguya, the father of the student. He added seriously: ``Their price is too costly!``
This is a situation which is openly admitted by many medical practitioners and well versed sociologists as common in many countries in Africa, including Tanzania where the services of modern medicine come as a last resort.
Even medical experts are perplexed by this kind of mentality and are appealing for serious change of attitude in matters that relate to diseases: ``Get to a medical facility immediately for diagnosis, prescription before administration instead of rushing to local medicine men for healing.``
But there are also varying factors that make people resort to traditional healing for malaria.
They are questioning if there is an effective drug against the disease.
Researches have observed that all the districts of Tanzania are affected by malaria with 93 percent of the population of about 35m people at the population growth rate of 1.95 at an endemic risk, three percent at epidemic risk and only four percent at negligible risk.
Malaria accounts for 30 percent of the national burden of disease and loss of productivity in Tanzania, where the disease is endemic throughout much of the country.
Growing resistance to first-line anti-malarial drugs in recent years has greatly diminished the government\'s ability to treat the disease.
Research has established that children are the common victims of malaria, with mortality rates being highest among those five years and younger.
The majority of malaria in Tanzania is caused by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and the principal vector is gambiae.
Tanzania, like many countries in the region, has reported Chloroquine and some Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) resistance to Plasmodium falciparum and artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) is currently recommended as the first-line drug in their national anti-malarial treatment policy for uncomplicated malaria.
Tanzania Assessment Results.
Tanzania`s malaria control programme is comprehensive and has four key strategies which are improved malaria case management, vector control, prevention of malaria in pregnancy, and epidemic preparedness and containment.
Key achievements
United States Agency for International Development has worked closely with the Tanzania Ministry of Health and the National Malaria Control Programme on developing national policies and standards for intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) for pregnant women. It has collaborated with the ministry to develop IPT training materials and scale up IPT activities.
President`s Malaria Initiative
In June 2005, President George W. Bush announced an increase in resources from the US Government in order to fight Malaria.
This new groundbreaking initiative challenges other countries, partners, donors and foundations to also commit to combating this disease significantly in sub-Saharan Africa each year over the next five years.
To launch this initiative, the United States expanded resources for malaria in Angola, Tanzania and Uganda beginning in 2006, and to at least four more highly endemic African countries in 2007, and at least five more in 2008.
According to the USAID by 2010, the U.S. Government will provide an additional $500m per year for malaria prevention and treatment.
The goal of the President`s Malaria Initiative is to reduce malaria deaths by 50 percent in each of the target countries after three years of full implementation.
This effort will eventually cover more than 175 million people in 15 or more of the most affected African countries.
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