Together Against Malaria » What is Malaria

Beating disease with the mobile phone doctor

admin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 02:25:28 +0000

An innovative new phone that includes a microscope could help combat the spread of deadly diseases in the most remote parts of the world. The CelloPhone can be used to diagnose diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria and will act as a mobile doctor in places where medical resources are limited.

The idea started as a student project at Berkeley College in the US. It developed into “Celloscope” and became the winner of the Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Project prize.

The Celloscope works in the same manner as a laboratory-style florescence microscope but has the advantage of being portable, meaning that it can be used in developing countries where facilities are scarce. For example, the Gambia struggles to combat malaria (the cause of 25% of child deaths annually) but they do have good mobile phone networks and so can make use of the advantages of the CelloPhone.

Celloscope studies sample cells from blood, urine or saliva. These images are then sent by MMS to a central station where a computer programme returns the diagnosis to CelloPhone as a text message. Malaria is a major public health problem around the world, with 300 to 500 million people in more than 100 countries suffering from malaria annually. 90% of these cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is curable, yet the disease kills more than a million people each year, mainly children under five.

With the advent of the Cellophone, eradication may no longer be a dream. The Gambia has been doing well so far with its malaria control program and may manage to eliminate it in the next decade, especially with the advantage of a coastal location (which means a swathe of the country is free from malaria-infested borders). The Cellophone could help with a faster diagnosis in a region with limited resources but a high rate of survival.

An innovative new phone that includes a microscope could help combat the spread of deadly diseases in the most remote parts of the world. The CelloPhone can be used to diagnose diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria and will act as a mobile doctor in places where medical resources are limited.

The idea started as a student project at Berkeley College in the US. It developed into “Celloscope” and became the winner of the Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Project prize.

The Celloscope works in the same manner as a laboratory-style florescence microscope but has the advantage of being portable, meaning that it can be used in developing countries where facilities are scarce. For example, the Gambia struggles to combat malaria (the cause of 25% of child deaths annually) but they do have good mobile phone networks and so can make use of the advantages of the CelloPhone.

Celloscope studies sample cells from blood, urine or saliva. These images are then sent by MMS to a central station where a computer programme returns the diagnosis to CelloPhone as a text message. Malaria is a major public health problem around the world, with 300 to 500 million people in more than 100 countries suffering from malaria annually. 90% of these cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is curable, yet the disease kills more than a million people each year, mainly children under five.

With the advent of the Cellophone, eradication may no longer be a dream. The Gambia has been doing well so far with its malaria control program and may manage to eliminate it in the next decade, especially with the advantage of a coastal location (which means a swathe of the country is free from malaria-infested borders). The Cellophone could help with a faster diagnosis in a region with limited resources but a high rate of survival.

Political Integrity: an Example Out of Africa

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:23:39 +0000

by Philip Yaffe

We live in a cynical age where the values of truth, honesty and integrity seem to be in short supply. We are therefore always looking for examples of such values in action, especially with regard to politicians.

I would like to offer you such an example from Africa. You have probably never heard of this man, but for me he stands as a true model of integrity. It’s not Nelson Mandela, but Mr. Mandela would certainly be proud to have his name mentioned in the same breath with him. His name is Julius Nyerere.

Julius Nyerere was the man who led then Tanganyika, today called Tanzania, to independence from Britain in 1961. Unlike many other independence movements, this one succeeded without a single drop of blood being shed.

I had the privilege of living two years in Tanzania shortly after independence. Being a city boy (I grew up in Los Angeles), for me Tanzania was quite a revelation. I virtually lived in a mud hut, suffered through a drought, saw leprosy, and contracted both malaria and dysentery. All of these things affected me. But getting to know Julius Nyerere as a political leader was truly a life-changing experience.

When Nyerere became head of state in 1961, he was so popular that he could easily have taken on the trappings of a king or potentate. But he did exactly the opposite. He chose to live very modestly, because that was his nature.

More importantly, he inspired confidence in everyone, and never betrayed that confidence, because that also was his nature. He of course had political enemies. They were often critical of his ideas and policies – but never the man. The worst I ever heard anyone say about him was, “President Nyerere is doing all the wrong things for all the right reasons.”

Julius Nyerere was a realist riding a wave of idealism.

For example, shortly after taking office, he cut the salaries of all government ministers by 20-50 percent, including his own. Although by world standards these ministers very poorly paid, by Tanzanian standards they were very rich. Nyerere argued that such a poor country simply could not afford to maintain its government in such a lavish style. Any minister who refused the cut was invited to leave the government, and a number of them did.

In the 1960s, the first thing a newly independent country wanted to do was set up a national airline and rush to industrialise. Nyerere was different. He concluded that Tanzania could not become truly industrialised for at least a century. So instead of devoting all its energies and limited resources to trying to build an industrial base, it made more sense to strengthen its agricultural base.

This meant reforming the schools. Instead of turning out potential clerks, shop assistants and middle managers for the cities, the goal should be to turn out scientific farmers. These would then go back to their villages to teach their compatriots, who were mainly subsistence farmers.

Advocating this was close to heresy. Most people felt that the purpose of going to school was precisely to escape from the backward rural villages. There was considerably opposition to Nyerere’s idea, but ultimately it was implemented.

As a Peace Corps teacher in a boarding school, I could immediately see the difference. Suddenly, we were required to start a school farm and to grow much of the food the students would be eating. The students didn’t take kindly to having to do manual labour, but eventually the protests subsided and farming became part of the daily routine.

At roughly the same time, Nyerere looked at Tanzania’s university students, who were the elite of the elite. It is important to understand that there were only about a thousand university students in the country out of a population of nearly 10 million because Tanzania had virtually no educational base. At the age of 6, less than half the children were in school. There was a severe examination to go from primary to secondary school, which nearly 85 percent failed because there just wasn’t any place for them. So those who reached university were by definition the elite of the elite.

Nyerere noted that it took the total annual income of 78 Tanzanians to keep one university student in school for one year. To help cover the costs, he proposed that on graduation each student give two years to public service.

Once again, rebellion; the students went on strike. Once again, Nyerere stood his ground, declaring that as much as the country needed university graduates, it needed true Tanzanians more. He therefore closed the university for a year and sent the students back to their rural villages to rediscover their roots. Those who received good reports from their village headman were allowed to return the following year.

A neutralist during the Cold War, Nyerere was basically a man of peace. However, he could take military action when the situation called for it. For example, in 1978 he sent Tanzania troops into neighboring Uganda to oust the notorious dictator Idi Amin, who fled into exile.

When he retired as head of state in 1985, Nyerere took on the role of roving diplomat and peacemaker. Because he was so trusted, he was invited to mediate disputes all across the African continent. For instance, he was instrumental in bringing an end to the slaughter in Burundi in 1996. He also worked tirelessly to put an end to apartheid (racial segregation) in South Africa.

Nyerere didn’t look like the consummate leader he was. He was rather small and had a bushy little moustache that made him look like a chocolate Charlie Chaplain. But when he spoke and when he wrote, you knew that you were in the presence of someone special. He was affectionately known as “Mwalimu”, Swahili for teacher, which is what he was before going into politics. This was a sign of respect, not reverence.

I am not a very emotional person. But when Julius Nyerere died on October 14, 1999, I felt a sudden emptiness in me. It was as if something good had left the world. And it had.

Nyerere was a devout Catholic and in 2005 he was proposed for beatification. He is currently under consideration for canonization, which is one step away from sainthood. I don’t think I would put him on such a high pedestal. I didn’t necessarily agree with everything he did. But I never doubted that it was always for the best of reasons.

Every time I hear his name, I still feel the same emptiness I felt on the day he died. So if you are ever tempted to say that politics and integrity don’t mix, please remember Julius Nyerere. You will never find a better model of integrity, either in politics or in daily life.

Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course in good writing and good speaking in Brussels, Belgium. His recently published book In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional is available from Story Publishers in Ghent, Belgium (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com).

For further information, contact:

Philip Yaffe

Brussels, Belgium

Tel: +32 (0)2 660 0405

phil.yaffe@yahoo.com, phil.yaffe@gmail.com

Malaria Preventin and Travel

admin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:29:50 +0000

Malaria and travel

Malaria is a major international public health problem. There are enough statistics to prove the same and in order to protect ourselves against it , all it requires is common sense and an understanding of how the disease is spread.

To summarize, malaria is caused by a parasitic micro-organism called Plasmodium. Since there are four different types of Plasmodium that infect humans it stands to reason that there are four different types of malaria. There are a few other less common species but of limited health significance to us.

These parasites are transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquito. It is important to understand that only Anopheles can transmit malaria. If visiting an area endemic for or rampant with dengue , it would be useless and not to mention toxic , to binge on anti malarials since dengue is transmitted by a totally different mosquito – the Aedes species. Of course , standard mosquito repelling measures must be taken as usual since other mosquitoes transmit a fair number of other diseases as well.

The standard approach to dealing with this is traditionally described as ABCD

A – awareness

B – bite protection

C – chemoprophylaxis

D – diagnosis and treatment in case of infection

Awareness

This means to familiarize ourself with the area about to be visited … whether mosquitoes are present, what type of mosquitoes, what diseases are endemic , drug resistance patterns. Such information is constantly updated and hence it needs to be reviewed often.

Unnecessary panic is also unwarranted – in many cases mosquitoes are present but there might not be active malaria. Its good to follow local news and health reports to ascertain this.

Though many might be of the opinion that its safer to take the medicines before hand , sometimes it could be overkill.

Medicines – and in many cases high end ones, have to be started a week before and have to be continued for 2 weeks after returning from the area. It is an individual decision and there will always be arguments for and against it.

Bite protection

Anopheles mosquitoes generally have nocturnal feeding habits. Hence it is prudent to take maximum precautions during the evening and night. However , it must be kept in mind that other mosquitoes which are involved in spread of diseases like Dengue are daytime biters as well

Wearing clothes that cover arms and legs adequately as well as applying repellent on exposed areas usually works well – and in many cases obviates the need for taking medication. While sleeping its wise to use mosquito nets – those impregnated with repellents work even better.

A variety of insect repellents work , but the most effective one is DEET. Various formulations of varying concentrations are available and how often reapplication is required depends on the manufacturer.

Using electronic repellents which vaporize liquid formulations of insecticide is reliable .

They might be fancy pieces of equipment but most ultrasonic frequency emitters have been shown to be ineffective in repelling mosquitoes.

Often, the local practices for keeping the marauding insects at bay are most effective.

Chemoprophylaxis

This refers to the widespread practice of taking antimalarial drugs before , during and after the expected period of exposure to the mosquitoes. The idea being that it takes care of any parasites that might be in the blood as a result of a bite.

For the most part , all the routinely prescribed drugs are well tolerated , but side effects can occur. Mostly they are more inconvenient rather than outright debilitating , however in case of serious reactions , it goes without saying that medical attention is needed.

Drug regimes broadly fall into 2 types :-

Chloroquine resistant areas – where the parasite is no longer susceptible to chloroquine. This is the case with most areas. If not full blown – there is at least a moderate level of resistance. In such cases drugs such as Mefloquine, Doxycycline and Malarone ( Atovaquone + Proguanil) are the standard choices.

Chloroquine responsive areas – these are fairly rare in number . Chloroquine is rarely prescribed alone , its mostly given along with Proguanil.

A detailed review of dosages and side effects of anti malarial drugs, as well as special circumstances like pregnancy, is beyond the scope of this article.

Diagnosis and Treatment

In spite of all precautions , sometimes mosquitoes could find a chink in the repellent armor. If nothing else, they have sheer numbers on their side.

The good news is , malaria is very much treatable. In case there are no healthcare facilities nearby, it is wise to keep emergency medication ready. Consulting a doctor beforehand to understand symptoms of malaria and what to do in case you end up having it is a good idea.