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Uganda: Malaria 'Wasting Away Lives'
Malaria is the leading cause of death in African children younger than 5.
April 2007
By Marie Cook, World Vision in Canada
Contributing writer, Janet Root -- Web Writer/Editor
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Enyedu, just 4-months-old, is gravely ill with malaria. His mother, Melda Agero, 30, has just brought him to the World Vision-assisted Tubur Medical Center in northeast Uganda to get help.
[(c) June 2006/Paul Bettings,/World Vision]
"Help me!" Melda Agero pleads, cradling her thin, listless, 4-month-old, Enyedu.
Exhausted, the 30-year-old mother has arrived at the Tubur Health Center in Uganda in desperation. She needs immediate medical help for her tiny boy whose small brown eyes are yellowed with jaundice.
Enyedu has suffered from bouts of malaria since birth and weighs just six pounds. Melda fears he has contracted malaria again. "I am worried about my baby, and I look to this clinic to help me," she says, her eyes filling with tears.
Child Killer
Melda's deep concern is warranted. Malaria is the leading cause of death in African children younger than 5. It is also the primary cause of illness and death in Uganda.
Though malaria has been brought under control in many parts of the world, sub-Saharan Africa has a different story to tell. The region is home to one of the most deadly species of mosquitoes, which transmit the disease. Many countries in Africa also lack the health systems, infrastructures, and resources necessary to mount sustainable campaigns against malaria.
As a result, of the more than 1 million who die each year from malaria, most are Africa's smallest, most vulnerable citizens — children younger than 5. It is a harsh fact made all the more tragic because malaria is easily preventable and treatable.
Malaria
- Infects 350 to 500 million people each year
- Kills a child somewhere in the world every 30 seconds
- Accounts for about one in five of all childhood deaths
- Is most prevalent in Africa, where 90 percent of deaths from the mosquito-born illness occur
Sources: UNICEF: "Facts for Life"; UNICEF: Health; "Roll Back Malaria" Information Sheet
Mosquito Nets
Since malaria is transmitted through mosquito bites, sleeping under an insecticide-treated mosquito net is a proven way to prevent them. Melda understands this: "At home we do not have mosquito nets, so there is no way to protect him," she says, referencing her ailing son.
Midwife Hellen Rose, who works at the Tubur Health Center (a government-run, World Vision-supported health clinic in northeastern Uganda's Soroti District), reviews the family’s health history and shakes her head, noting that everyone in Melda's 10-member family has suffered from malaria.
Melda, 30, and her husband Epudu, Simon, 40, live on a small farm where they grow rice, cassava, cowpeas, and beans — barely enough to feed their eight children. They have nothing left over to sell for cash to buy medicines or mosquito nets. "I get money sometimes [from selling food] but the sickness of the children takes it away," Melda adds.
The family's living conditions illustrate how malaria is a disease of poverty, afflicting primarily the poor who often live in malaria-prone rural areas with few resources, if any, to combat the disease.
Meanwhile, Rose says she can provide anti-malarial medication for Enyedu, but only if they are in stock. Uganda's government provides all medical clinics in the country with medicines and supplies four times a year; it is common, though, for these centers to run out of supplies before the next shipments.
When this is the case, patients must go to a pharmacy and pay for the medications themselves, something most Ugandan families like Melda's can't afford. Many times mothers return home with unfilled prescriptions, and no way to help their sick children.
"We try to preach [malaria] prevention," says Malinga Samuel, a doctor's assistant at the Tubur Medical Center. "… Insecticide and bed nets, that is the one way to prevent malaria." Yet almost every patient he sees can't afford nets or the chemical that makes them more mosquito resistant, Samuel acknowledges. Here he displays medical supplies provided to the center by the Ugandan government and World Vision.
[(c) June 2006/Paul Bettings/World Vision] | | Clearly, the need for additional medical supplies in countries like Uganda is acute. This is why World Vision's Gifts-in-Kind shipments often fill the gap at the Tuber center, routinely saving lives, giving children like Enyedu a chance to recover.
Preaching Prevention
Malinga Samuel has worked as a doctor's assistant at the Tuber Health Center for several years, and says he's seen more cases of malaria than he wishes to recall. It is the disease he treats most at the center.
"We try to preach prevention. We try to teach insecticide and bed nets -- the one way to prevent malaria," he says. But, almost every patient Malinga sees cannot afford nets or the chemical that makes them more mosquito resistant.
A weary Melda looks at the baby lying so still in her arms, and simply whispers: "Help me to help my children."
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Learn More
>> Read a UNICEF account of why reversing the spread of malaria is critical for the survival, health, and development of children, especially in Africa.
>> Read more about malaria in Africa.
>> "Medical News Today" reported a new study published in the journal "Science" that revealed a diabolical "interaction between HIV and malaria [that] is increasing the prevalence of both diseases in sub-Saharan Africa." Ways You Can Help
>> Pray for Melda and millions of other African parents who share the same hope for all of their children: life in all its fullness. Pray that they will have the means to stop malaria and other deadly threats. |  | 1-888-511-6548 : P.O. Box 9716
Federal Way, WA 98063-9716 Who Is World Vision?
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
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