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Malaria treatment and
prevention: Are insecticide treated bed nets enough?
The
meristem of hope, and the way that the war against malaria is sold to the world
lies in Insecticide Treated Bed Nets (INTs). Both
the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Gates
Foundation feature bed nets on their front pages. This visual emphasis may be misleading and
putting all hope into this prevention strategy foolhardy. While prevention is the most effective long
term solution to malaria worldwide, there must be active efforts to treat
victims with malaria now. The efficacy
of bed nets may be exaggerate d and programs should put money into other things
as well. The efficacy of INTs is not in
the netting itself, but the insecticide that it is treated with. INTs must be retreated, they must be placed
properly over a bed, so that there are no gaps, and if they are damaged at all,
they are rendered useless. Not only are
these tasks nearly impossible, but lying under one is stifling and they are
only being distributed to pregnant women and children, thus protecting part of
the population, but only those that use their bed nets as bed nets. In some impoverished regions these bed nets
are being used as fishing nets. Invariably
cost is a factor in use and availability.
The
key to malaria eradication abroad is the feeling of a real threat at home. Citizens should be made aware that malaria
was disease that once plagued the United States. The spread of the disease also needs to be
addressed. In 1999 the WHO warned that
global warming could lead to an increase in vector borne diseases in Europe,
going so far as to call for urgent government action to prepare for the spread
of the disease. 7 years later global warming is still
affecting our climate making more and more regions susceptible to outbreaks of
vector borne diseases. The United
States is naïve to believe that we are
immune to this possibility. Fighting
malaria abroad and putting money into ventures such as vaccine development help
us as well as the thousands if not millions of lives that we are saving.
While
INTs are a powerful and important part of the solution, they are not the total
solut ion. We need a global effort to
better the health care infrastructure, to decrease malnutrition, and to
increase awareness. Equally as important
are treatment strategies such as ACTs against resistant strains, prevention
strategies such as the use of DDT in regions that can benefit from it and where
resistance has not been built up, and landscape management. Depending on the regions drainage might help,
decrease the amount of standing water that accessible to mosquitoes, and
stopping deforestation with all decrease the number of breeding grounds for the
malaria vector.
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