Malaria in Ethiopia

April 25^th is World Malaria Day but since malaria is still such a deadly disease in Africa, Peace Corps has proclaimed all of April as World Malaria Month. Because of this I thought it would be a good idea to spread awareness about the disease to family and friends back home and teach people a little bit about the state of malaria in Ethiopia.

Students working on the malaria word search

Today, malaria continues to be a crisis in Africa. Every 45 seconds a child dies from the disease. Even sadder news is that this disease is completely preventable and curable if people would sleep under a mosquito net. Malaria has been eliminated in many parts of the world with the use of insecticides, medicines, and by sleeping under mosquito nets. Malaria is transmitted only by a special kind of mosquito- called the Anopheles mosquito- which primarily bites at night. Getting malaria feels like you have the flu.

Compared to other countries in Africa, the percentage of people who get malaria is low. The goal for Ethiopia is to eliminate the disease throughout the country. By spreading awareness and teaching people about how malaria is transmitted and how to prevent people from getting it, hopefully this goal can be achieved in the near future. Certain places in Ethiopia have no cases of malaria due to high elevation. Mosquitos are not found above 2500 meters, however in the last few years (as a consequence of global warming) cases of malaria have been reported at higher elevations than normal. Health clinics throughout the country pass out mosquito nets to communities in rural areas. Many people do not know how to put up their mosquito nets and so use it for other purposes. Many volunteers have said that community members do not believe that there is any malaria in their town so do not see the use in putting up a net. As Peace Corps Volunteers we have to take either weekly or daily malaria medications throughout our service and sleep under a mosquito net.

Furthermore, I along with volunteers across Africa have participated in activities to raise awareness of malaria in our communities. All month long I focused my English club on malaria. We discussed facts and statistics about the disease. We went over prevention and the goals for Ethiopia. We went over new vocab associated with malaria and I made the students a word search (the students had never done a word search before) one week and they worked on a crossword the following week. Hopefully, by spreading awareness and teaching people about the deadly consequences of not using a mosquito net and other prevention methods, malaria can be eradicated in Ethiopia and the rest of Africa so that it no longer has to take the lives of millions of people.

Students working on the malaria word search