 Health |
Issue 139 |
The Silent Epidemic
The media exists to inform us about what is going on in the world. A flick through the newspapers or a glance at the television news should give us an idea about the major events occurring at the time. Yet, it seems that the media can choose not to cover some issues and events, but at the same time, give another issue a great deal of coverage. The amount of coverage given to a particular issue would, supposedly, provide an indication of the importance or seriousness of that issue.
Over the past few months there has been quite a deal of coverage of the threat posed by a world-wide epidemic of Avian Influenza, commonly referred to as "Bird Flu". Alarming reports of a virus that can mutate and spread quickly from person to person have filled our television screens and newspapers. Politicians have been stirred to action warning travellers to take precautions. Millions of dollars have been poured into research and the development of a vaccine against the virus. We have been continually warned of the danger of this virus and of the huge effect it will have on millions of people around the world.
This influenza virus has been compared to the epidemic of the early twentieth century when 40 to 50 million people died around the world. We are right to feel scared. However, when we look at the number of infections up to this point, we find that since 2003, 228 cases of Bird Flu have been confirmed in 10 countries world-wide, 130 of which have resulted in death. It is good to consider strategies to prevent or even be prepared for the possibility of a serious outbreak of Avian Influenza. However, we should also acknowledge and seek to address other health crises.
At the same time as reports of Avian Influenza, there is a disease that has been with us for a long time . It kills over 1 million people each year, mostly children, and another 3.2 billion people living in 107 countries are constantly at risk of contracting the disease. This disease is so deadly that it can kill within hours. In some parts of the world there is hardly a child who has not suffered from this disease before they reach their first birthday. 80% of all the deaths that occur from this disease are in Africa. The disease is most prevalent in tropical areas. It is caused by the Plasmodium parasite which enters the bloodstream after being bitten by a mosquito. This disease is called malaria. Despite the fact that this disease is barely mentioned in our media, there is no doubting its seriousness.
The deaths from malaria are only part of the story. Malaria can affect a child's brain, so that it can cause seizures, partial paralysis or speech problems. The disease often recurs, draining a child of energy which affects their ability to learn. Pregnant women are also prone to anaemia which may be fatal. Anaemia may also result in premature birth of their child and low birth weight, meaning that the child is less likely to survive their first year. Those who live with the disease, suffer from periodic fever, headache and exhaustion. This means that they are less able to plant and harvest crops, reinforcing the poverty cycle.
A generation ago, there was real hope that malaria would be eradicated or controlled, just as other infectious diseases have been. But during the 1980s and 1990s, the disease became resistant to the commonly used antimalarial drugs and the mosquitos became resistant to insecticides. The campaign that looked likely to eradicate malaria lost momentum and support.
The poor, especially children under the age of five in Africa, suffered the consequences. The death toll from malaria increased twofold during the 1990s in parts of Africa south of the Sahara. The disease reappeared in areas where it had been eliminated.
In 1998, the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) campaign was launched so as to restart the fight against the disease. The aim of the RBM campaign is to halve malaria deaths by 2010 and halve the number again by 2015. This campaign will run alongside the sixth Millennium Development Goal of halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other major diseases. We have the means to fight these diseases and now with these campaigns we need to get behind these goals to ensure they are achieved.
Malaria needs to be attacked on two fronts. Those who are vulnerable to infection, mainly children and pregnant women, need to be protected and those who are already sick need to be treated with the most effective drugs. Many of the traditional drug treatments are no longer effective but new, more effective treatments are available if at a higher cost.
Sleeping under a mosquito net which has been impregnated with insecticide is a simple yet very effective barrier to infection by the mosquito which carries the parasite. These nets cost around $2 each. New drugs have been developed which can replace the older quinine-based drugs as the disease has developed resistance to them. These new treatments cost around $1 to $3 each. All that is needed now is for the world to get behind this push to control this serious yet silent epidemic. Let's hope that the media will be less silent about this disease and the success of the Roll Back Malaria campaign.
2001 to 2010 is the International Decade to Roll Back Malaria.
SCIENCE/PDHPE/BIOLOGY
1) Research malaria. Go to
www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
education/science_life/pages/malaria.html and
to www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/
fs094/en/print.html to
find information on this disease. Focus your research on the following
areas:
- The type of organism that causes the disease
- How the disease is transmitted
- The symptoms of the disease
- How the disease progresses
- Who are the most vulnerable to infection
- How the disease can be prevented
- How the disease can be treated, including traditional and newer treatments
- How the treatments combat the disease organism
This can be broken up into smaller group tasks and each part can be presented to the rest of the group perhaps as a Power point presentation.
Define/explain the following medical/technical terms that occur in the above information:
Anaemia, cerebral, insecticide, fever, parasite, Anopheles, Plasmodium, mosquito saliva, chloroquine, red blood cells, iron, epidemic.
2) For more teaching and learning ideas on health go to cyberschoolbus.un.org/special/
health/teacher/index.html
SOCIAL SCIENCES
1) Go to www.rbm.who.int/cmc_upload/0/000/
015/363/RBMInfosheet_10.htm and
look at the two world maps.
- What do you notice about the relationship between poverty and the incidence of malaria?
- Why do you think that there is no malaria in northern Australia and in southern USA? (Even though they are at the same latitude as many other areas with a major malaria problem ).
- Can you explain how malaria might be "both a disease of poverty and a cause of poverty"?
- What are the direct costs of malaria? For families? For government?
- What are the indirect costs of malaria?
- How can malaria reduce the productivity of a person?
- How can malaria affect the longer-term prospects for children?
- How will the reduction of the incidence of malaria help improve prosperity?
2) Go to www.ifrc.org/Docs/News/
06/06061301/index.asp and
answer the following:
- In what way are the rains in Niger a positive and a threat at the same time?
- What happened between December 2005 and March 2006?
- Why were mothers of children under 5 targeted?
- Why is the education of mothers an essential part of this program?
- What message do the volunteers give to the mothers?
- What is the correct method of hanging the net?
- Why did Maimouna not need to be told about the importance of sleeping under a net?
- How many volunteers are working with the Red Cross on this project?
- Why is it important for local people to run this project?
3) Go to www.who.int/features/2005/malaria/en/ and answer the following:
- How is Oumoul helping the people of Diaba?
- What does she bring with her from Dakar?
- What do the Sow family bring with them apart from the nets?
- How has the villagers' attitude changed since coming into contact with the Sow family?
- How do the villagers thank Oumoul and her family?
- Who is Kaam Lamo?
- What does his job involve?
- Why did the Cambodian government decide to employ Kaam?
- What is the basic approach he takes in his work to fight malaria?
- How successful has his work been?
- What are the four basic approaches to "rolling back" malaria?
4. Go to www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
education/science_life/pages/geo4.html and
then compare it to www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
education/science_life/pages/geo5.html Why
do you think that the places where malaria is most prevalent are not the
same places that get the medicines?
ENGLISH
1) Read Pau and Teno's stories at
www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
education/science_life/pages/aday1.html and
rewrite the story in the first person i.e. imagining you are Pau
or Teno telling your own story.
1) Go to www.smh.com.au/news/national/
lift-your-game-un-raps-foreign-aid-
record/2006/06/14/1149964611230.html for
a news report about our government's below par performance on
overseas aid and development despite new spending announced recently.
The report compares private donations with the meagre response from
our government. It is perhaps timely to remind ourselves of our millennium
promise to spend as a nation, 0.7% of our national income on helping
our fellow human beings out of poverty and by improving their health.
Our government has still to commit to a timetable for keeping our promise,
despite record budget surpluses year after year. The government will
need to double spending on aid and development to reach our promised
target. If we are serious about addressing the suffering of so many
of our fellow human beings we should be encouraging our elected representatives
to do much more to address the causes and effects of poverty by supporting
such programs as Roll Back Malaria.
Discuss this in your groups and develop a plan to lobby your local politicians and your state Senators to "break with business as usual" as Kofi Annan has urged us to do in the following quote:
"We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals - worldwide and in most, or even all, individual countries - but only if we break with business as usual. We cannot win overnight. Success will require sustained action across the entire decade between now and the deadline. It takes time to train the teachers, nurses and engineers; to build the roads, schools and hospitals; to grow the small and large businesses able to create the jobs and income needed. So we must start now. And we must more than double global development assistance over the next few years. Nothing less will help to achieve the Goals."
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan
2) Go to www.ajustaustralia.com/things
youcando_writealetter.php to
participate in a campaign to protest against proposed changes to the
way asylum seekers will be processed. The proposal is that all people
seeking asylum will be taken to Nauru (outside Australia) to have their
application processed. This will mean that women and children will
again be placed in detention for indefinite periods and that asylum
seekers will have their full legal rights denied.
3) This month the United Nations Small Arms Review conference will be held in New York. Almost one person in three is affected by gun crime. There is a campaign to tighten gun control worldwide. Find out more at www.controlarms.org/the_issues/ You can add your face to the Million Faces Petition here too.