Malaria: Our Impact

It’s early morning, but Rebecca Owolabi, a nursing officer at the Isokun Maternity Center in Ilesha in Osun State, Nigeria, is already providing group counseling on malaria prevention in pregnancy to women visiting the facility for antenatal care. She counsels them on the importance of sleeping under an insecticide treated bednet and seeking treatment at the first sign of malaria. Also, as preventive therapy, she hands two tablets of sulphadoxine pyrimethamine (SP) to the women, who then swallow them with water.

MSH’s President and CEO, Marian W. Wentworth, will join the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Malaria Vaccine Advisory Committee (MALVAC) for a two-year appointment.

In March, heavy rains following Tropical Cyclone Idai devastated Malawi. The storm injured 677 people; 59 died. According to the Malawi government, some 87,000 people were displaced from their homes. Some families spent nights in school-based emergency shelters, while classrooms teemed with students during the day. Some lived in tents, sometimes shared among four to five people. Others had to fend for themselves, building makeshift shelters from scavenged materials. The storm also ravaged the crops and livestock most families rely on for food and income.

Malaria is the leading cause of outpatient visits in Uganda (Ministry of Health, Annual Health Sector Performance Report, 2015/2016), and prevention, diagnosis, and treatment are crucial for reducing preventable deaths, lowering the risk of resistance to antimalarial medicines, and decreasing medicine wastage and misuse.