Fight to stamp out Malaria

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Aiding the fight against malaria in Africa...

Rapid Malaria Tests Change Medical Diagnoses in Africa
25 April 2008 - What started out as Africa Malaria Day was being observed worldwide for the first time on Friday. Health organizations have long said that most of the one million deaths every year attributed to malaria happen in Africa. But a newly-introduced malaria test that gives results in 15 minutes shows not every case of fever means malaria, which is how many health workers have previously diagnosed the disease.

Nurse Khany Faye Sougou recently examined an 18-month-old baby at the district health center in Pikine, a suburb of Senegal's capital Dakar. His mother says she was worried he had malaria because he had not eaten the previous day and had a fever, common signs of malaria. The nurse pricked the child's finger to draw blood that she dropped into a small white stick to test for the malaria parasite, spread through infected mosquitoes. Fifteen minutes later, Sougou looked at the white stick and announced the child did not have malaria.

Senegal's health centers in cities started using rapid diagnostic tests last September. Pikine's medical chief, Karim Diop, says the tests have completely changed how his workers treat fevers. "Before the rapid tests, every case of fever was assumed to be malaria," said Diop. "None of the other 21 health centers in my district have labs to test for malaria. We could not take the risk and wait for lab results from the region's only lab. So every child, pregnant woman, and most others with fevers got anti-malarial medication just to be safe."

Malaria can kill within days, especially pregnant women, children and patients with weak immune systems, like those with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, which causes AIDS. Most suspected cases are not tested in Senegal because of a lack of good quality microscopes. Malaria rapid tests do not require lab analysis and are given for free. The international donor group, the Global Fund, covers the 50 cent cost for each test, and recently funded one million tests in Senegal.

More VOA News - Rapid Malaria Tests Change Medical Diagnoses in Africa

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UNHCR Suspends Aid in DRCongo Province
25 April 2008 - The U.N. refugee agency says it has been forced to suspend a distribution of aid to displaced people in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province because of renewed violence.

The U.N. refugee agency reports hundreds of people have fled fighting in the Rutshuru area of North Kivu since the clashes began last weekend. The agency says it halted distribution of aid to displaced people amid reports of new fighting Thursday between government soldiers and fighters from the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda movement. UNHCR Spokesman, Ron Redmond tells VOA the agency also has suspended the registration of new arrivals at campsites for internally displaced people in the Rutshuru area.

"We do not think it is going to last," he said. "But, it happens fairly often in an environment like that, where you have got armed groups sort of wandering the countryside, pillaging villages, blocking roads. It is just a dangerous environment in which to work. So, it is just a temporary shut down." Redmond says UNHCR staff visited sites for internally displaced people following the first outbreak of violence and exodus of people.

He says the aid workers went to the area to find out more about the attacks and to assess the needs of the displaced. He says there is not enough shelter to accommodate the new arrivals, so most are staying in public buildings. He says they have been receiving food from people displaced in earlier waves of violence. Redmond says most of the people turning up at the displacement camps are women and children. He says most have harrowing tales to relate.

More VOA News - UNHCR Suspends Aid in DRCongo Province

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Malaria medicine doesn't do `em a whole lotta good if they can't afford it...

New malaria drugs 'too expensive' for most Ugandans
Nov 11 2008 : Effective malaria drugs are too expensive in Uganda and often unavailable, forcing families to fall back on drugs that are cheap, but no longer work well, a new report reveals.

Even within Africa, Uganda is particularly hard hit by malaria, which is responsible for 20 to 23% of all deaths. Small children and pregnant women are worst affected. Treating malaria has become more difficult because the parasite causing the disease, which is carried in Africa by the anopheles mosquito, has become resistant to one drug after another. But new drug compounds derived from a Chinese plant, known as the artemisinins, offer renewed hope and have become the centrepiece of a major UN-led strategy to defeat, and even eradicate, the disease.

A new report from the Medicines for Malaria Venture, together with Uganda's ministry of health, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the health consumer organisation HEPS-Uganda, reveals, however, that artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs), now supposed to be first-line treatment throughout Africa, are not getting to the people who need them.

Nine districts of Uganda, including Soroti, the nearest town to the sub-county of Katine in north east Uganda, were studied to establish what malaria drugs people were able to obtain, either in public health centres and hospitals or in private pharmacies. The researchers found that the artemisinin compounds were often not available in public health centres. Only around 60% of public health facilities in Soroti had any pack-size of the first-line recommended treatment, called artemether-lumefantrine. NGO and mission facilities had slightly more. Stocks tended to be low or very low everywhere, suggesting that "stock-outs" - a common occurrence across Uganda, in which the dispensary runs out completely - were imminent.

More New malaria drugs 'too expensive' for most Ugandans | Katine | guardian.co.uk

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Uganda hit by world economic crisis
Friday October 24 2008 - The Ugandan government warned this week that the country faces a drop in funding from overseas because of the global financial crisis.

Finance minister Ezra Suruma told parliament that while Uganda was not "directly exposed" to risk, the economic downturn could lead to a reduction of money coming into the country from outside investments, tourism, remittances from abroad and aid flows from donor countries, reported the Daily Monitor. His comments followed those of the governor of the Central Bank, Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, who warned that the global crisis would slow Uganda's growth.

"We expect the recession in Europe and the US to reduce demand on our exports. This will lead to less earnings from exports, earnings from tourism are also going to be affected," Mutebile reportedly said. "Tentatively, I can say that instead of the 8% growth rate, it will be in the range of 5% or 6%." While offering assurances that Uganda remained strong, both men were forced to comment after the Ugandan shilling fell against the US dollar this week.

However, MPs said they wanted more assurances. Soroti MP Alice Alaso, said: "Suruma is holding an economic bomb which is about to explode. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to be serious in offering solutions before it is too late. We need to prepare, the dollar crisis is just the beginning and we can't afford to sit back when the bomb is about to explode."

More http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/200...24/africa-news