MALARIA AN EPIDEMIC IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Document Type:Thesis

Subject Area:Management

Document 1

Endemic- disease that is common in a certain area of localized among certain people. Background Malaria infection remains one of the most complicated human infection with a high mortality rate especially among the inhabitants of Sub-Saharan Africa. A case study of research done in a district in Ghana, western Africa has revealed that Malaria continues to kill people at a desperate rate despite the recent development in the medical field. Malaria has been found to be the principal cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa (Mayxay, 2015). According to an Indian researcher Malaria was accounted to have caused more than 38. Statistics have shown further 36% of the women get infected with malaria due to lack of proper protection and 10% of the children born to these mothers die of the infection before reaching the age of 5 years.

Sign up to view the full document!

According to Henk Van Den Berg, 2018, he and other authors in a community study in Malawi they concluded that increased community engagement in the fight against malaria greatly reduced the number deaths associated to malaria especially among the pregnant women and the infants. One of the strategy used was the use of community workshops to educate the members on the importance of use of pretreated mosquito nets, the use of mosquito repellants and drainage of stagnant water. These are some of the strategies being employed across Africa due to the fact that vaccination against malaria has not yet been discovered (Fried and Duffy, 2017). Rationale The main reason for selecting this topic is because malaria continues to be the leading cause death and has also continued to impede socioeconomic development in the many developing countries in Africa.

Sign up to view the full document!

[mp=title, theoretical, , order of contents, heading term, key concepts, initial title and tests Europe, Asia, America excluded African, Africa , sub-Saharan included CINAHL 12368 2. Endemic *. mp. [mp=title, theoretical, , order of contents, heading term, key concepts, initial title and tests Child and pregnancy included CINAHL PubMed 4556 3. Health impact *. [mp=title, theoretical, , order of contents, heading term, key concepts, initial title and tests All data sources less than 5 years old included All data sources 5 years older excluded EBSCO CINAHL PubMed 457 489 876 7. Morbidity, malaria *. mp. [mp=title, theoretical, , order of contents, heading term, key concepts, initial title and tests All data sources less than 5 years old included All data sources 5 years older excluded EBSCO CINAHL PubMed 68 235 53 8. Mortality, malaria *. In a research carried out in Ghana by an independent researcher, he found out that out of the possible 100 women he interviewed 85% had identified that mosquito bites were the main transmission of malaria in the region.

Sign up to view the full document!

More amazingly 41% of the participants identified sweet food to be the main cause of malaria, among other causes that were identified included the surroundings that were dirty, stagnant water bodies and plastics. These findings should raise an alarm on the vulnerability of these Ghanaian people and the general African population at large. The researcher concluded that the knowledge on the possible causes of malaria was poor among the Ghanaians and recommended use of more aggressive mass education of the public health not only on the menace of malaria but also other endemic diseases in the region in order to allow the public to prevent possible infection by employing the taught preventive measures. The researcher has also itemized the knowledge identifiable signs and symptoms of malaria among the population.

Sign up to view the full document!

Massive campaigns were also identified as being a strategy in the fight against malaria menace in Africa. The question on the effectiveness of the mass education on the fight against malaria could not be ascertained however, there were a study done by an independent Indian researcher which concluded that there was poor knowledge on the cause of malaria and majority of the people had limited information on the modes of transmission and also the signs and symptoms (World Health Organization, 2015). Child mortality and morbidity due to malaria in Africa According to the UNICEF report of 2017, there were more than 216 million cases of malaria infection, out of these 289000 cases involved children, which resulted to more than 400000 deaths. This can be translated to approximately 760 deaths of children under the age of 5 years.

Sign up to view the full document!

Majority of these deaths were recorded at the sub-Saharan Africa. Drug resistance strains of plasmodium have been on the rise and they may overtake the discovery of new medications. He also suggests that use of rapid diagnostic tests would greatly improve the outcomes of this menace. When the causative plasmodium species has been confirmed it can become very easy to administer the correct drugs and thus would eliminate the threat of drug resistance. The other challenge that has been identified by the WHO is the climate change, they have indicated that since 2012, there has been spikes in the malaria infection which can be attributed to the climatic changes that are being experienced all over the world. For example, the El Nino which resulted in increased temperature and rainfall led to rise in bleeding of mosquitos hence led to increased infections in Africa.

Sign up to view the full document!

Researchers have narrowed the complications to three life threatening which include cerebral malaria, pulmonary edema and the kidney failure (Bhatt, 2015). Recommendations 1. “Integrated vector management strategy”- This is a strategy that has been practiced in countries like Malawi, the strategy involves a link between the human health and the surroundings. The main focus is the environmental management which involves clearing of bushes, draining stagnant water in an attempt to reduce the bleeding sites for mosquitoes. Vector control has been 2. References Bhatt, S. , Weiss, D. J. , Cameron, E. , Bisanzio, D. A. The effect of malaria control on Plasmodium falciparum in Africa between 2000 and 2015.  Nature, 526(7572), p. Bhutta, Z. A. Fried, M. and Duffy, P. E. Malaria during pregnancy.  Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine, 7(6), p.

Sign up to view the full document!

From $10 to earn access

Only on Studyloop

Original template

Downloadable