In sub-Saharan Africa, malaria is still one of the leading causes of illness and death in children under the age of five years. My hometown of Kisumu-Kenya is a malaria hotspot, known for having high malaria transmission as well as cases of severe malaria among infants and young children. While living there I both suffered from the disease myself and witnessed children and pregnant women lose their lives because of a mosquito bite. When you have malaria, there are a number of symptoms you can experience. I had a recurring fever and headache with increased body temperatures, nausea, loss of appetite, heavy sweating as well as muscle weakness and joint pain.
Both the dispensary clinic and referral hospital were quite far away from my grandmother’s house, so when my cousins and I were sick with malaria, we usually went to the home of a certified nurse for healthcare services. During initial fever and sweating onsets, my grandmother would boil herbal plant leaves and let us drink it to relieve the symptoms. This always helped with the severity of our discomfort. However, lack of healthcare facilities and trained medical personnel, as well as antimalarial drugs and other preventative measures, led to many lives lost to this despicable disease.
Throughout my years in the village, the use of insecticide treated bed nets played a huge role in lessening contact between people in my community and anopheles mosquitoes, especially at night when these mosquitoes feed. Sometimes we didn’t have enough bed nets and therefore one had to be shared amongst four people; mostly we gave first priority to infants and young children.
My interest in biomedical-clinical research and tropical infectious diseases was inspired largely by my first-hand experience with public health diseases like malaria. As a young woman, I was determined to become a scientist and contribute to find effective treatment and prevention strategies for these diseases. I was first exposed to malaria research during my masters of science at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where I had the opportunity to investigate antimalarial drugs. My thesis research aimed to better understand the pharmacodynamics of the antimalarial drugs. Ever since then, I’ve been fascinated with the science behind malaria, as well as the advocacy and policy changes needed to address it.
According to the 2016 World Malaria Report, there were 214 million new cases of malaria and nearly 500,000 deaths worldwide in 2015. African regions accounted for almost 90% of the global malaria cases and 92% of the malaria deaths worldwide. More than 70% of all malaria deaths occurred in children under 5 years old, and the most vulnerable populations remained pregnant women and children. But between 2010 and 2015, there was a 37% global decrease in malaria incidence and a 60% decrease in global malaria deaths. This progress in the fight against malaria would not be possible were it not for all the efforts from all fronts. Malaria is a very dangerous life-threatening disease yet preventable and treatable at the same time.
Malaria prevention measures such as insecticide treated bed nets and antimalarial drugs have played a huge role in lessening the mortality rates in malaria endemic countries. That being said, there remains the very real problems of misdiagnoses, incorrect prescription of drugs, poor quality and limited access to medication, and the development of drug resistance. Despite these challenges, scientific researchers have not given up, and it is this kind of commitment that inspires my passion for science & advocacy, and empowers me to continue the fight against malaria and other infectious diseases. I have a dream that one day the whole world will be free of malaria. #DefeatMalaria