So much focus is put on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention here in sub-Saharan Africa, which of course is beneficial, yet malaria awareness and prevention is grossly overlooked. 29% of deaths in Mozambique are from malaria, and 42% of deaths in children under the age of five are from malaria. 42%!!!! Although many Mozambicans can tell you “use a mosquito net” or “clear away standing water”, they do not really understand why we do these things. When I was teaching, I spent many lessons talking about malaria, how it’s transmitted, and how we can protect ourselves. Although my students could answer questions correctly (most of the time), they could never answer the why. Can you?
SLEEP UNDER A MOSQUITO NET! The virus is transmitted solely through mosquito bites from a particular type of mosquito, the anopheles mosquito. These mosquitoes are most active at night, between the hours of 6pm and 6am, although they DO bite during the day (it’s just not as common). This is why sleeping under a mosquito net is so important- if a hungry mosquito who hasn’t eaten all day comes across a warm, sleeping, unsuspecting body, she is most likely to not only bite once but as many times as she can until her belly is full. This increases the probability of contracting malaria, having multiple bites.
CLEAR ANY STANDING WATER! Anopheles mosquitoes lay their eggs on standing water, be it a lake, puddle, bucket of water, etc. These eggs turn into larvae, which then must live in water for between 7 to 14 days. Without this time to gestate, obviously the mosquito cannot grow and therefore cannot grow up to bite people, spreading malaria.
GET TREATED IMMEDIATELY! FYI, this is a very basic and not at all thorough description of the malaria lifecycle, but it gets my point across. When someone contracts malaria, the malaria parasite enters the bloodstream, travels to the liver and reproduces, infecting tens of thousands of cells in the liver. After 5-16 days, the parasite then reenters the bloodstream, continuing to multiply and infect cells. (This is when a person can become ill- a week to two weeks after being bit by a mosquito.) The host’s blood is now full of malaria infected cells. When this host is bit, the mosquito becomes infected with malaria, transforming the parasite yet again inside its body (which takes another 8-15 days). The infected mosquito will then bite and infect more people, completing the cycle. So- malaria medications kill the malaria parasites within the body, usually within two to three days. If you take medication at the FIRST sign of malarial symptoms, you can cut the life cycle of malaria and prevent mosquitoes from passing the virus from you to another person.
USE REPELLANT! Because anopheles are most active at night, if you plan to be outside of your mosquito net after 7pm, use repellant. Need I say more?
SPRAY INSECTICIDES! Insecticide sprayed bed nets and clothing is an excellent idea for daily use. However, spraying insecticides like DDT is an effort that must be undertaken on a very large scale. Anopheles mosquitoes can travel up to two miles to feed. This means that even if you spray the walls of your house, mosquitoes from the neighborhood over and still travel to your house and infect you. Yet, mosquitoes must rest on the wall after feeding to digest the blood and excrete all excess weight they put on through feeding so they can fly home. If walls are sprayed, mosquitoes cannot land and therefore die before making it home. (You may still get infected with malaria, but at least the mosquito can’t pass it on again.) That said, with widespread spraying campaigns, malaria can be eradicated if everyone in the surrounding area participates and maintains other prevention techniques as well.
If you are traveling to a malarial zone, TAKE MALARIA PROPHYLAXIS! People who grew up in a malarial zone (like Mozambique) have an immunity built up in their blood. This means although they can still contract malaria, it is more difficult. Immunity takes several years to develop, leaving children under the age of five still very vulnerable to malaria, as well as pregnant women (who lose their immunity during pregnancy), and people with HIV/AIDS. Since most countries in the world eradicated malaria years ago, we do not have immunity, meaning we need preventative medications.
World Malaria Day is coming up on April 25th. In order for cases of malaria to decrease and more children to live to see their fifth birthday, we need to teach all of this information, to make sure people are listening, and to understand not only what malaria is but why we take the prevention measures we do. Every child deserves a fifth birthday.
How Will You Stomp Out Malaria in 2012?
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