Spreading Of Malaria In Franklin Village
FRANKLIN VILLAGE AT RISK OF ANOTHER OUTBREAK OF MALARIA
Franklin Village, a village located in the heart of Africa, faces another outbreak of malaria. According to Africa check 2014, malaria is a part of the top 5 causes of death in Africa today, it is so infectious that it kills approximately 781,000 per year. Malaria is one of the oldest diseases known to humanity – and certainly one of the deadliest (Telegraph.co.uk 2010). It’s a disease that kills you slowly but painfully and happens by a mosquito transmitting a parasite into one’s blood. People only hear the statistics of how many people have died due to the deadly disease malaria but do not understand the cause and effect it has on African society. In Britain we are privileged as we are not exposed to malaria, therefore we do not understand how physically, emotionally, and mentally draining it is. In this essay, I will be discussing strategies to tackle this atrocious disease and how I will be saving Franklin village.
Franklin Village is a village located in Congo. It is known for its tribal and traditional rituals/ceremonies. It also has one of the highest death rates in the whole of Congo, due to its boiling temperatures and the mosquitos lurking in the darkness. There are 600 families with a population of 1,500 people. The village is surrounded by a great desert and beautiful landscapes. It is such a shame that the people of this great village are suffering because of this spiteful disease.
Malaria is based in hot and tropical countries; it first appeared thousands of years ago. The earliest written record of malaria is from ancient China, 2700 BCE back then it wasn’t known that it was transmitted by a mosquito bite (malaria.com 2019). It was, later on, discovered that it was transmitted by a parasite in the mosquito in the late 1800s/19th century.
In the paragraph above I have mentioned that the illness occurs when a female mosquito transmits a parasite into a person’s body. The parasite then goes into your bloodstream and infects your red blood cells. If not treated, it will get worse and develop into anemia. To explain this further, anemia is an illness that prevents the production of red blood cells causing the amount of the red blood cells to be too low. As you may know, red blood cells carry oxygen around the body therefore lack of it will cause a lot of harm to your body internally and externally. Millions of people have been infected with this illness such as Cheryl Cole, Sir David Attenborough, and even Christopher Columbus they have all described malaria as a slow but painful experience. These people have miraculously tackled and defeated this deadly illness, this shows that with the right care you can defeat this disease (malaria), and this is how we want to treat the infected people of Franklin village.
The disease that I have chosen (malaria) may be difficult to stop as the malaria disease is a never-ending cycle. To explain this further, a human can transmit the disease to an uninfected mosquito as well as a mosquito infecting an uninfected human therefore, the disease is carried by both humans and mosquitos. Mosquitos are the vectors for malaria. My company and I -World Health Organisation- do not know whether to work on a cure for the mosquitos as well as the humans, in order for malaria to not exist in Franklin village and if possible neighboring villages. Another problem that I may come across is the fact that malaria infects millions of people so finding something that can treat millions of people will be almost impossible.
To guarantee and promise to the villagers that this cure will be 100% effective will be hard to do with no hesitation, as there could be many setbacks and problems we will run into. To elaborate on this, the mosquitos could become immune to this cure making the disease even more difficult to cure than it was before. It will be extremely expensive due to the fact I am on a budget, to find a cure is going to take effort and perseverance, but I am willing to find the perfect cure that is waiting to be found. One more reason why the disease will be very hard to stop is that when the disease is curable the symptoms are mild. According to the NHS 2018, these are the mild symptoms of malaria;
- Muscle pains
- Diarrhea
- Vomiting
- Headaches
- Feeling hot and shivery
- A high temperature of 38C or above
- Generally feeling unwell
As you can see these symptoms are not severe and are very mild, hence why spotting malaria at an early stage is very rare. In order to prevent the outbreak, my organization and I need to inform the people of Franklin village on when to see a doctor and how to treat their symptoms.
My tactics to stop the sickness in this village is to educate/inform the people so that they know what to do in certain medical situations. For example, if a child has a fever, they should go to the local hospital/medical care center, in order to get checked and see if they are infected with malaria. As I mentioned before, when the symptoms are mild the illness is curable if the symptoms aren’t treated when mild, it can evolve into severe symptoms that are hard to treat such as yellow skin and seizures. Another way to protect Franklin’s village is to provide them with nets. The Against Malaria Foundation 2019, states that each net costs $2.00 (this is equivalent to £1.57), lasts for 3-4 years, and protects, on average, two people. This price is relatively cheap and convenient as it lasts for up to 4 years and is easily renewable. I know that it is not 100% effective but as Deuce McAllister says, ‘’It’s a start. You have to start somewhere, and it’s a good start for us.’’ Another way to prevent the outbreak is to train the people of the village to find a way to get themselves clean water. The next stage would be to block the puddles with mud, stones or wood, in order to prevent mosquitos from multiplying because female mosquitos only lay eggs in still water. Furthermore, drinking the contaminated water will make you very ill and can lead to other diseases such as cholera so it is for their own good.
One of my main tactics is to start a partnership with laboratories that specialize in diseases such as malaria in order to find the most convenient and most effective cure. Fake anti-malarial drugs are a huge problem. It is estimated that around 20 percent of the one million deaths caused by malaria annually can be blamed on counterfeit drugs (the telegraph 2019). By the statistics, you can see that 20% of the one million people could have easily been saved, given the right resources. This number motivates me as I know that making an affordable and accessible product will help the next people who are given these fake tablets.
My chosen interventions will work as my company and I have hope and are willing to help stop malaria for good. Whether research companies need loans or help with research we will help them no matter what. I know for a fact that the nets will work as it’s scientifically proven that mosquito nets avert thousands of cases per year so we have hope for this plan to work. My other strategy was to inform the people of when to see a doctor this is going to work as the citizens of Franklin village will be aware of when their symptoms could possibly be malaria. The reason for blocking puddles is so that when the eggs hatch they don’t get out and bite people. My company and I are fully aware that anti-malarial tablets are a popular choice to combat malaria. This is why partnering will laboratories which specialize in this disease is an amazing idea as they will know the pros and cons of using anti-malarial tablets this leads me to my final point, using quinine in our cure is vital. Quinine is from tree bark it is scientifically proven that it helps treat patients with malaria which is why it is also used in anti-malarial tablets.
To conclude this topic, malaria is a dangerous disease and in order to contain it and to stop the outbreak in Franklin village it is very important to educate the village to change their way of life so this investment will continue for generations. Using nets and the help of scientists to find a cure will help save the village. As I have mentioned above, malaria kills 781,000 people a year. The target for me and my company is to decrease this number by at least 55% and to make Franklin village and maybe even the whole of sub-Saharan Africa a safer and happier place. It is the World Health Organisations’ role to ensure that people feel comfortable in their surroundings.
