I ought to start this blog by saying 15 months ago, when I arrived in Zambia, I knew very little about Malaria.  Since then I have been trained by Peace Corps and had numerous life experiences with the infection. 

A little background info: 

In Zambia, as much of sub-Saharan Africa, Malaria is possibly the most significant health problem, affecting millions people and killing nearly half a million in the region.    Essentially it is a parasite that is carried by a certain female mosquito and transmitted to humans when bit by an infected mosquito.  Malaria cannot be spread from person to person but the same mosquito can infect more than one person.  Make sense? 

If you get Malaria, there is adequate medication to get rid of the infection and save your life…that is if you have access to a clinic or other health care.  There are many means to preventing malaria one of which is taking a prophylaxis on a regular basis.  Such medicines are available at a fairly high cost and with many undesirable side effects both short term and long term…and not 100% effective.  In addition, this medicine is typically quite pricey so unless you have a lot of money or access to good health care you can count that out as an option. That being said, I think it is reasonable to rule this out both as a prevention method for the majority of people living in sub-Saharan Africa as well as a long term solution to Malaria. 

Much of the world, including the US was able to eradicate Malaria by spraying a large amount of DDT which is effective in killing the mosquito that carries the Malaria parasite.  At this time long term effects of DDT on humans and nature were not known.  We now know the enormous consequences of DDT…cancer, birth defects, and negative effects on wildlife.  DDT is absorbed into soils acting as sink and creating a source of long-term exposure of the chemical.  If this is all new information to you, read Rachel Carlson’s Silent Spring, it will blow your mind!!  So, long story short, DDT is not recommended by many as a way to eradicate malaria, especially by the various aid organizations helping with Malaria outreach.

Due to this, much of the prevention efforts focus on keeping yourself from getting bit by mosquitoes.  Sleeping under an ITN (Insecticide Treated Net), wearing long clothes, cutting your grass, filling holes that might pool water during the rains, mosquito repellant…etc.  There have been much educational efforts as well…ranging from getting tested and treated in a timely manner if you suspect you have malaria to the difference between Malaria and other illnesses (people often don’t know how to distinguish one illness from the next).

So as many of you know, mosquito’s breed in clean still water, creating a storm of Malaria throughout rainy season.   It is astonishing how apparent the effect malaria has on my community throughout the whole year, but especially when rainy season hits.  Attendance to meetings, school, workshops, etc is so low sometime you just have to cancel.  Resources are exhausted at the clinics. People are making multiple trips many kilometers to the local clinic for testing and medication while suffering from this illness.  The impact this disease has on the well being and livelihood of these communities is just heartbreaking.  Keeping kids from school and receiving adequate education and adults from the fields were they are growing next year’s food.  (Of course these issues don’t stem from just one cause, but Malaria is defiantly keeping progress at bay).
As a Peace Corps Volunteer of course I want to help.  So, as this month is Malaria prevention month, I have done workshops galore:  how to use an ITN, how to make Neem cream for a mosquito repellant, etc.  I have taught the kids a malaria song, to wear long clothes, and to fill standing water with dirt.  It is so disheartening, because even with all of these efforts, even if they were all able to take a prophylaxis, the root of the problem is not solved.  Case in point: A few short weeks after said workshops I begin to get sick.  I am feeling exhausted and kind of feverish, but try to push on as it was a busy week.  Lo and behold, I have managed to get Malaria.  It wiped me out, fever, uncontrollable shakes, exhaustion like I have never felt.  Keep in mind…I take my malaria prophylaxis every week, I sleep under a mosquito net, use insect repellant, wear long clothes…I am very adamant about doing these things, and doing them well. I literally called in sick to going and recording the kids signing the malaria song because I had malaria!!! So if this is the case and I still get malaria, how can I begin to expect villagers with nowhere near the amount of resources I have, to keep them from getting malaria?  Children, people already sick, the elderly...how do we expect them to rise above and combat this illness? These efforts are most definitely reducing the number of malaria cases and the deaths caused from it, but we need to do better. 

Tough realizations….with heavy boots!!

There must be a better solution!!!!