Bed nets newest weapon for malaria-prone Tanzania

KIBAHA – Oblivious to the crying of other babies around her, 19-month-old Nasla Juma bounced happily on her mother’s lap, pausing momentarily to stare at a nurse’s blue cap.

The two were at a Village Child Day when expectant mothers and children under five from villages surrounding Tanzania’s Kibaha town come together for free medical checks every three months. Scores of women in colourful dresses with babies or toddlers strapped to their backs milled around government offices converted for the day into a medical clinic, waiting their turn.It is on these days that the United Nation’s children’s organisation, Unicef, and the Tanzanian government hope to hand out discount vouchers to new mothers or expectant women to buy insecticide-treated mosquito bed nets.The nets, which are dipped in mosquito-repelling insecticide, are touted as the way forward in preventing malarial infection in a country where 100,000 people die of the disease each year.They are said to reduce malaria deaths by 27 per cent.NUMBER ONE CHILD KILLERUnicef estimates that malaria kills 200 Tanzanian children every day, or causes at least a quarter of all deaths of babies.Six million Tanzanian children under the age of five are at risk from malaria, which is spread by a bite from mosquitoes carrying the disease.”Malaria is the number one killer of children in Tanzania,” said Rodney Phillips, Unicef’s representative in the country.”We have to put our efforts into this disease that affects everybody.It brings down productivity and unless we can treat it, we will not be able to deal with poverty in this country.”More than half of the 35 million people in the east African country survive on less than a US$1 a day, making it impossible for them to look for preventive measures against infection.A net, with the discount, costs about 90 cents.Nasla has been lucky because she has never had an attack, although seven toddlers of the same age in neighbouring homes had fever resulting from malaria on the same day.Her mother, Feda Hamisi, attributes their luck to sleeping under a mosquito net.”The malaria problem in Kibaha is a major issue.Everyone is aware of that fact, but women are now saying that they and their families fall sick less often after they started using (the nets),” said Fatina Mkande, a nurse at a dispensary in Kibaha.Not all children are as lucky.Recovering from a bout of malaria, 18-month-old Wande Paulo coughed at her mother’s chest and fussed when her mother attempted to make her stand on her own.Despite sleeping under a net, the baby still caught the disease.Mkande said an increasing number of children were sleeping under the bed nets, but most of the people coming to the dispensary were women bringing in their sick children.”Everyday, we can get between 20 to 30 children.Most of them are sick with malaria,” she said.TOO POORLeaning over a shop counter, Evelyn handed over her voucher and 1 000 Tanzania shillings (US$0,90) to the shopkeeper.He wrote down the voucher number in a book and handed over a blue mosquito net to the woman, who was six months pregnant.The government’s malaria control programme provides vouchers to prenatal care centres that in turn hand them out to expectant women or new mothers.The vouchers cut the cost of bed net by about two-thirds.”It is a good system because we can’t afford the whole cost,” said Susan Bakari, embracing her 1-year-old daughter.A net for each bed in the house would be a luxury for her poor farming family, she said.Some families are still too poor to buy them, even with the vouchers.”The government should drive their cars door to door and call out, ‘Mr.So and So, how many children do you have? Here are bed nets for all of you,’” said Mushehe Mabenge, 60, wearing a dirty shirt and straw hat.”Cleanliness keeps away disease but we are too poor.There are too many mosquitoes but people can’t even begin to think of buying those nets.”- Nampa-ReutersScores of women in colourful dresses with babies or toddlers strapped to their backs milled around government offices converted for the day into a medical clinic, waiting their turn.It is on these days that the United Nation’s children’s organisation, Unicef, and the Tanzanian government hope to hand out discount vouchers to new mothers or expectant women to buy insecticide-treated mosquito bed nets.The nets, which are dipped in mosquito-repelling insecticide, are touted as the way forward in preventing malarial infection in a country where 100,000 people die of the disease each year.They are said to reduce malaria deaths by 27 per cent.NUMBER ONE CHILD KILLERUnicef estimates that malaria kills 200 Tanzanian children every day, or causes at least a quarter of all deaths of babies.Six million Tanzanian children under the age of five are at risk from malaria, which is spread by a bite from mosquitoes carrying the disease.”Malaria is the number one killer of children in Tanzania,” said Rodney Phillips, Unicef’s representative in the country.”We have to put our efforts into this disease that affects everybody.It brings down productivity and unless we can treat it, we will not be able to deal with poverty in this country.”More than half of the 35 million people in the east African country survive on less than a US$1 a day, making it impossible for them to look for preventive measures against infection.A net, with the discount, costs about 90 cents.Nasla has been lucky because she has never had an attack, although seven toddlers of the same age in neighbouring homes had fever resulting from malaria on the same day.Her mother, Feda Hamisi, attributes their luck to sleeping under a mosquito net.”The malaria problem in Kibaha is a major issue.Everyone is aware of that fact, but women are now saying that they and their families fall sick less often after they started using (the nets),” said Fatina Mkande, a nurse at a dispensary in Kibaha.Not all children are as lucky.Recovering from a bout of malaria, 18-month-old Wande Paulo coughed at her mother’s chest and fussed when her mother attempted to make her stand on her own.Despite sleeping under a net, the baby still caught the disease.Mkande said an increasing number of children were sleeping under the bed nets, but most of the people coming to the dispensary were women bringing in their sick children.”Everyday, we can get between 20 to 30 children.Most of them are sick with malaria,” she said.TOO POORLeaning over a shop counter, Evelyn handed over her voucher and 1 000 Tanzania shillings (US$0,90) to the shopkeeper.He wrote down the voucher number in a book and handed over a blue mosquito net to the woman, who was six months pregnant.The government’s malaria control programme provides vouchers to prenatal care centres that in turn hand them out to expectant women or new mothers.The vouchers cut the cost of bed net by about two-thirds.”It is a good system because we can’t afford the whole cost,” said Susan Bakari, embracing her 1-year-old daughter.A net for each bed in the house would be a luxury for her poor farming family, she said.Some families are still too poor to buy them, even with the vouchers.”The government should drive their cars door to door and call out, ‘Mr.So and So, how many children do you have? Here are bed nets for all of you,’” said Mushehe Mabenge, 60, wearing a dirty shirt and straw hat.”Cleanliness keeps away disease but we are too poor.There are too many mosquitoes but people can’t even begin to think of buying those nets.”- Nampa-Reuters