2004-5-30
This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development
Report.
Malaria is estimated to kill another child in Africa every thirty
seconds. But there is new evidence that treatment of malaria at home
can save many lives. This is called home-based management.
Home-based management is being used in several countries in Africa.
These include Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria.
Local health workers and mothers of young children are trained to
recognize the signs of malaria. They are taught to seek treatment
immediately. Store keepers are trained to sell the right amount of
medicine for the age of the patient. And directions about how to use
the drugs have pictures so they are easier to understand.
World Health Organization officials say this treatment at home is
reducing malaria deaths in children under the age of five. One
example is in Burkina Faso. W.H.O. officials say deaths decreased by
more than fifty percent when high body temperatures were treated
quickly.
High fever is the most important
sign of malaria. Experts say children should be treated within
twenty-hour hours after their temperature rises. At first, a cool
wet cloth may help reduce the body temperature. But children can die
within two days if the malaria becomes severe. Children must receive
the correct amount of medicine. And they must take all the medicine
they are given.
Mothers and health workers are told to take the child to a
medical center if the fever is treated but continues after two days.
Other signs of malaria include sleepiness and feeling sick in the
stomach. The W.H.O. says people often take patients to traditional
healers to treat another effect of malaria: severe shaking. But it
says the healers should be trained to tell them they must go to a
hospital.
The World Health Organization has published a guide in an effort
to increase malaria treatment at home. This information tells about
how to train and educate mothers and other people about malaria. In
Uganda, for example, communities have elected a person to learn the
signs of malaria and provide medicine. Teachers and store keepers
are also trained to help educate the community about malaria.
The guide is called "Scaling Up Home-Based Management of
Malaria." Internet users can find it at www.who.int. Again,
www.who.int.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen
Leggett. This is Robert Cohen.