Expedition Nets Fly in the Face of Malaria

from Eco Worldly

Written by Sam Aola Ooko

On April 25, 2008, designated the first World Malaria Day, 3,000 children or more in sub-Saharan Africa, majority of them under the age of five years, will die from malaria, one of the deadliest preventable diseases on the planet, global health data indicate.

Malaria, the dreaded and life-threatening disease continues to kill between 1 million and 3 million people each year, many of them pregnant women in Africa.

A two-month long 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) expedition on the Zambezi, one of Africa’s longest rivers, that begun on 29 March 2008 led by two adventurers, Helge Bendl, a journalist, and Andy Leemann, a boating enthusiast, partnering with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, covering six nations in southern Africa aims to put a spotlight on the plight of malaria-stricken communities on the continent which contributes 90 percent of the global annual death toll.

The rough terrain in Africa means that the delivery of mosquito nets and medications to remote villages ravaged by the disease could sometimes be a matter between life and death. But with inflatable boats through Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, the Zambezi Expedition will attempt to get even deeper to reach to many potential victims as possible.

Sponsored by Sumitomo Chemical, the expedition includes medical teams carrying ecologically safe mosquito nets and medicine. The organizers hope it will also raise more local and global awareness to scale up malaria control and prevention and provide renewed life for malaria prevention in Africa as well as educate families with the knowledge and resources to combat the disease. Nearly 40% of the world’s population lives in malaria-endemic areas.

Previously marked as Africa Malaria Day since 2001, World Malaria Day is an attempt to raise greater awareness and global commitment to rolling back malaria and meeting the United Nations malaria-related Millennium Development Goals.

Caused by a parasite that is transmitted by mosquitoes that typically bite their victims at night, malaria can kill very quickly if untreated and remains the leading cause of death in many developing countries, particularly among children.

Unlike many parts of the world where it has been eliminated, malaria infections have, over the last three decades, increased in Africa, compounded with very efficient mosquito vectors, increasing drug resistance and struggling health systems.

Approaches like providing insecticide-treated bed nets, spraying the inside walls of houses with insecticides, providing access to diagnosis and antimalarial drugs, and providing a packet of interventions through strengthened antenatal care services for pregnant women have been known to be effective against the disease.

Long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets (LLINs), that have no adverse effects on the environment such as those distributed during the expedition, work by creating a protective barrier against mosquitoes. These can accommodate more than one person - a mother and an infant or a few siblings - for up to three to five years.

A net treated with special insecticides offers about twice the protection of an untreated net, and through its repellency, can even protect other people in the room outside the net.