Countdown to Mali

A year ago, I didn't really know anything about Malaria but the past few months have been an education of sorts. It's been a few days now since I found out that I will be joining the Canadian Red Cross as it distributes 1.8 million mosquitoe nets to the West African country of Mali. I'm really excited to be involved with the Red Cross in getting the word out to Canadians about this parasitic disease. Here is a recent article I wrote for the Toronto Star about what Malaria almost cost me.

"Malaria Bites"

Initially, I felt really tired and nauseous. Then I couldn’t keep my food down. Everything I ate or drank, I threw up. I knew Sierra Leone was a hotbed for Malaria but it took two visits to the doctor before I decided to get a blood test. I was shocked when the test was positive for Malaria parasites.
For six weeks since my arrival in Sierra Leone, I had been taking all the recommended precautions — my daily dose of doxycycline, an anti-malarial drug, sleeping under a net, using bug spray and covering up my arms and legs in the evenings.
Soon nights had become unbearable. My temperature bounced between 38 and 39 degrees C. My mind started to play tricks on me. I was delusional. Each day I would tell my flat mates to be careful when they left for work. I felt a sense of impending doom and I felt completely at its mercy. My body ached and when everyone in the house was sleeping I quietly sobbed in my bed fearful of the outcome.
Although I was born in Africa, the idea of getting Malaria was foreign to me. It was something that I never thought I would experience or that I would be diagnosed with the most serious of the four strains of the disease. I’m sure that most of us in Canada have no idea of what exactly malaria is. I’m pleased to now be working as a spokesperson with the Canadian Red Cross in a campaign it’s launched to promote awareness of the disease. Malaria almost cost me my life and it continues to affect 40% of the world’s population, mostly young children and pregnant women, who are at risk on a daily basis of contracting this deadly illness.
Since 2003 the Canadian Red Cross, with funding from CIDA, (Canadian International Development Agency) has hand-delivered 2.5 million mosquito nets to six African nations: Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Malawi, Niger, Zambia and Togo.
Although there is no vaccine for the disease, the best weapon against Malaria is through prevention with the use of an insecticide treated mosquito bed net. These nets can last for up to 5 years and will protect a child or family from being bitten by the mosquito that carries the Malaria parasites at night.
The use of anti-malarial drugs, insect repellants and the mosquito un-friendly environments of mesh screens on windows and air-conditioning in a house are also deterrents but these are luxuries in the areas of the world where the disease is most prevalent.
I had traveled to Sierra Leone, West Africa to work as a Media Trainer with a Canadian Non Governmental Organization. Over the course of eight months, I was to train the local journalists the basics of reporting and work with them ON covering human rights stories.
The country was holding its first independent elections since the civil war ended in 2002. The brutal conflict that began in 1991, subjected hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and children to mass amputations, rape and the abductions of kids who were forced to become soldiers. I was there to witness this.
This past summer, the people of Sierra Leone elected a new government that’s vowed to improve the lives of its people by addressing the problems of adequate housing, employment, education and health care.
While I was in the hospital being treated for Malaria, I saw people lying on mats in the hallways because they couldn’t afford a bed.
In Sierra Leone the patient pays his or her own medical costs. I was billed for everything including the syringes and needles that were used to test my blood. My first round of treatment consisted of 8 pills and cost 25, 000 Leones, the equivalent of $10, and approximately one third of the average monthly wage in Sierra Leone. A bag of rice is 70, 000 Leones. If someone were to get sick in that situation they would be forced to choose between their health and feeding their family.
Malaria has been called a disease of poverty and continues to affect nearly half a billion people a year, mostly in Africa. The Canadian Red Cross estimates 1 million people die from Malaria each year. The disease kills more children than AIDS, TB or any other infectious disease. Everyday, 3, 000 children, most under the age of 5, die from Malaria. That works out to a child every 30 seconds. Staggering.
Shortly after I was diagnosed with malaria, the doctors told me that I also had Typhoid. A few days later I was near death. I went into anaphylactic shock. My doctor treated me with the drug novalgin, also known as diphyrone. This extremely dangerous drug was banned in Canada during the 60s and in the United States in the 70s. This drug causes agranulocytosis and anaphylactic shock both life threatening risks. Agranulocytosis is a dangerous condition where there is a severe reduction in the body’s white blood cells and anaphylactic shock is a severe allergic reaction that kills in mere minutes if not treated.
Novalgin is still being manufactured and distributed to countries in Africa and South America. It is a painkiller that can be substituted for paracetemol or aspirin.
According to BUKO Pharma-Kampagne, an advocacy group based in Germany that monitors the activities of German pharmaceutical companies in the third world, the drug is still being manufactured because “as long as there are good profits to make there is no reason for a company to stop the production. And where drug regulation is weak and independent information is lacking even bad drugs make good business”.
What’s frightening is that when someone who can afford treatment gets infected with a common illness like Malaria, they may have to contend with a flawed system which may include banned or expired drugs.
After I went into anaphylactic shock, I was so sick that I was repatriated to the UK. My fiancé had to take me to the doctor on a weekly basis. I was suffering from severe anemia and had relentless migraine headaches, something I’ve never suffered from. Just walking a few feet left me exhausted and panicked. I couldn’t sleep and I had nightmares about the day I almost died. I felt like I was missing. Like Bruce Willis’ character in the movie ‘the sixth sense’.
Following weeks of bed rest it was decided that I couldn’t return to Sierra Leone. I was devastated. I had fallen in love with the country and I had formed a strong bond with Hannah, my boss at the radio station I was working at. I felt like I could help my trainees but now I was no longer in a position to do so. I felt defeated. I had traveled to Sierra Leone with an NGO that promotes human rights only to have my fundamental right to health be violated a right that is denied from millions of people around the world on a daily basis. It is a lesson that I will never forget.
I experienced first hand what can happen when you get sick in Africa but at least I had the resources to get help.
Now I’m excited that something good has come out my experience and I’m looking forward to organizing a fundraiser with the Red Cross in the New Year to bring awareness on this dangerous but preventable disease.
This past October the Canadian Red Cross launched its largest net distribution to date: 2 million nets to Madagascar and Mali. For the average cost of a magazine and a coffee, I invite all Canadians in donating a $7 net.
With more and more Canadians traveling to remote areas of the world, Malaria is something more people can come in contact with. Making it a very possible reality for all of us and a $7 bed net can be the difference between life and death.