Everyone agrees today that malaria is one of the main causes of infant and maternal mortality in Africa. It also constitutes a considerable obstacle to development, by participating in the perpetuity of the cycle of poverty in the black continent. But how do we combat it effectively?
For Africa, malaria represents a loss of 12 billion dollars per year, or 1.3% of its GDP. It is the cause of 10 million days of school absence for schoolchildren, and working for the assets of the world of employment; A major cause of healthcare spending in the workplace and in households. Speaking of household, Malaria – as named by the Anglo-Saxons – generates a large number of hospitalizations of pregnant women: miscarriage, severe anemia, prematurity, low birth weight etc. The picture that one would like very nice and pleasant to consult, is unfortunately black and black, to the point where one wonders about the techniques of fighting against this disease which takes the skin of an evil plague.
Over the many years, malaria treatments have continued to change; A situation justified by the fact that the germ injected by the female anopheline – the Plasmodium – is in perpetual mutation. Yet there have been reports of the government’s withdrawal of a drug that was clearly successful (the Plasmotrim) in effectively curing the disease. Committees set up to block the way for the latter could thus be threatened with dissolution because there would be fewer and fewer victims of malaria.
Also, in the face of the increased number of these victims, curative treatments alone did not seem to be adequate. Preventive action must therefore have taken place. For example, the option of Long-lasting Impregnated Long-lasting Nets (LLINs), which has obviously been adopted, was mentioned. In all the national territories, free distribution campaigns for these LLINs are therefore organized to prevent malaria. However, since the impregnation time is about 06 months, these nets have to be recycled for impregnation. The facts are there and speak for themselves: 90% of deaths in Africa in the last decade are due to malaria. The irony is that control methods generally do not vary.
Why not tackle the root of the problem ? Where is the root ?
Malaria has the particularity of spreading in areas of tropical nature. The female anopheline, the mosquito that is the cause of this disease, develops more in marshy places with strong unhealthy coloring. So basically, it is the insalubrity that can be considered as the root of the problem of Malaria.
It is therefore necessary to sensitize people on the healthy maintenance of their living environment, from the bottom up: the environment setting of the family, the community, the neighborhood, the city, the region, The country, the subregion, and why not the continent.
Without, however, neglecting the curative factor in the fight against malaria, the prevention component can be further accentuated by the need to be safe in its environment and around it. To give priority to it would be to resort to all the measures that would encourage people to obey this credo.
Certainly there is some awareness of the area, but in view of the facts, this aspect of the fight against malaria is equally negligible. We are therefore concerned about the motivations of the public authorities and international organizations to fight Malaria with determination. Anything that raises this question: Malaria – Health or Interest? To each respond.
EPOKE Bienvenu Aristarque
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The statistics provided in this article are based on the document governing the 2nd National Campaign for Free Distribution of Long-Term Impregnated Long-lasting Nets, published by the Ministry of Health of Cameroon; Published in 2015. www.pnlp.cm
