Stomping Out Malaria

The month of May heralds the beginning of the rainy season throughout Benin. Farmers prepare their fields, and temperatures fall. While everyone welcomes these advantages to rain, the ambitious rise of puddles and filling catchments (even those unintended) can create breeding grounds for the world's least favorite buzzer, the mosquito. Mosquitoes make for annoying and itchy evening in the United States, but in Benin the Anopheles mosquito can transmit malaria.

Malaria is a disease most everyone recognizes but knows little about. It's caused by a parasite with symptoms of fever, chills, head and body aches, and even anemia and respiratory distress. It resembles and is treated like the flu, but even mild cases can take their turn for the worse and become fatal if not diagnosed and treated within 24 hours. Diagnoses confirm cases through blood samples, and oral medication for a few days can treat even the worst cases.

That makes malaria preventable. Avoid mosquitoes by sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets and eliminating instances of standing water. Nonetheless, barriers persist to seeking care and acquiring treatment. Knowledge about the disease and treatment options can be lacking, as can the money for treatment. Those at highest risk for malaria and complications are the pregnant and the young (less than five years old). In fact, malaria is the leading cause of death for children under five in Benin (WHO, 2018). An estimated 4.1 million cases occurred in Benin in 2017 resulting in an estimated 7,300 deaths. This is staggering as the national population is only about 11 million.



One of the major goals of Benin Peace Corps Volunteers is educating community members on malaria prevention, symptoms, and treatment. High time for this no matter one's sector of work is May, which is World Malaria Month. Volunteers have joined with local partners to conduct countless outreach lessons, paint murals, and even tour regions on their bikes with malaria awareness events planned for each stop.

My work has centered on children. My counterpart and I gathered two grades of students from our local primary school to play a series of games that simulate malaria transmission and prevention, allowing kids to learn crucial lessons while having a good time. This is just a fancy way to say we talked to the kids before and after playing Sharks & Minnows, except now it's Mosquitoes and Humans. Another game made players toss a ball with a taught tarp and avoid it when it turned into a mosquito. It was a fun way to tackle a serious problem. 







Malaria is serious business and an enormous but preventable problem across dozens of countries. While this post hasn't focused heavily on Benin or my work, I hope readers can come to take an honest look at the breadth and depth of the impact the disease has on billions of people.


Addendum: Here's a great music video from Beninese musical artist and Grammy Award-winner Angelique Kidjo.





Cited
WHO. (2018.) "Benin: Malaria Country Profile." In World Malaria Report 2018. https://www.who.int/gho/countries/ben/country_profiles/en/


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