Summer Serve and Learn: Malaria Prevention

Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium and is transmitted through the bites of infected mosquitoes.  Once in the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver, and then infect red blood cells.  Symptoms include fever, headache, and vomiting, and usually appear between 10 and 15 days after the mosquito bite. If not treated, malaria can quickly become life-threatening by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs.¹

GHEI’s fourth and final session of Summer Serve and Learn, now well under way, works to address this problem by focussing on malaria prevention.  This session began with a series of data collection training modules that addressed best practices in surveying, avoiding biased responses and respecting confidentiality. From there the volunteers were taught how to properly code responses for our database.

After this content-heavy training, our volunteers were keen to hit the streets (and paths) of Humjibre to begin collecting data.  They were split into two groups and accompanied by GHEI community health workers (CHWs), who served as interviewers and interpreters. The volunteers then coded the data for GHEI’s database.

In community-wide trials in several African settings, insecticide treated nets (ITNs) have been shown to reduce all-cause mortality by about 20%. Their use has repeatedly been shown to reduce severe disease and mortality due to malaria in endemic regions.¹ With this in mind, residents of Humjibre are asked if they use ITNs to prevent mosquito bites during the night and, if so, how they go about using the bednet. GHEI is trying to determine the number of families using bednets in Humjibre, examining bednet quality to ensure there are no holes, and seeing if people are using these bednets properly by tucking them under their beds to block any openings through which mosquitoes may enter.

CHWs installing bednets

Some population groups are at much higher risk of contracting malaria than others. They include people with compromised immune systems such as HIV/AIDS patients, non-immune travelers, pregnant women, and in high transmission areas, children under five years old.¹ Each interview that GHEI conducts takes these vulnerable groups into consideration through specific questions.

Interviews begin with a household questionnaire that inquires after the number of people in each household, listing individual family members and their respective ages.  From there interviewers conduct a women’s questionnaire to ask women from 18-49 years of age if they have children under the age of five, and if they are currently pregnant.  Malaria during pregnancy poses extreme health risk, and increases the chance of maternal anemia, spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, low birth weight and neonatal death.  Each year, approximately 10 000 women and 200 000 of their infants die globally as a result of malaria infection during pregnancy, and severe malarial anaemia contributes to more than half of these deaths.¹

 

If the women have children under five, GHEI interviewers then use a corresponding child questionnaire.  This questionnaire solicits information regarding the child’s overall health, including whether the child has had a fever, diarrhea and/or respiratory problems in the past two weeks and, if so, if the child has been tested for malaria.

Our fantastic volunteers and CHWs will continue their surveys of Humjibre and the surrounding communities this week.  The information gathered helps us assess the current impact of malaria, which in turn lets us respond by distributing bednets to those in need and offering instruction on how to use them effectively.  

Such a simple tool, the bednet, and yet what an impact it is already having in our GHEI communities.  Much of this success can be attributed to the tireless and patient work of our CHWs and volunteers, and we say a very big thank you to them for their hard work and great commitment. 

¹Source: World Health Organization. Malaria. http://www.who.int/topics/malaria/en/

Malaria lifecycle, courtesy of metrohealth.org

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