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Mother pays highest price of malaria

 
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5:00 P.M. EST Dec. 2, 2010 | BO, Sierra Leone (UMNS)

Frances Beecher lost her firstborn son to malaria this fall. Now five months pregnant, she plans to use one of three bednets to cover her new baby.  UMNS Web-only photos by Phileas Jusu.
Frances Beecher lost her firstborn son to malaria this fall. Now five months
pregnant, she plans to use one of three bednets to cover her new baby.
UMNS Web-only photos by Phileas Jusu.

Francess Beecher knows the staggering cost that can result from just one mosquito bite.

In September, she lost her firstborn, 2-year-old Jonathan, to malaria. Although Beecher received an insecticide-treated bed net when she delivered her son at the village health center, she did not use it regularly.

“Some nights, I would not bring down the net because I was very tired and would doze off only to wake up after mosquitoes have bitten me and the child, and he would be mumbling before I would put the net down,” Beecher said.

“He caught high fever and within a few days became weak and anemic,” she added. The family eventually took Jonathan to the village health center, but he was too weak to recover. He died a few hours later.

Now five months pregnant, Beecher, 18, is hopeful her next child will enjoy a long life.

She and her husband, Emmanuel, recently received three insecticide-treated bed nets to protect their family from the mosquito-borne disease, and she is determined always to use them properly.

More than bed nets

The United Methodist Church has joined with the Sierra Leone government and other international organizations to provide more than 3 million insecticide-treated bed nets to the people of Sierra Leone, where malaria is a leading cause of death. In the Bo District, where the Beechers live, The United Methodist Church is supplying and funding the distribution of more than 320,000 bed nets. The campaign also is administering polio vaccinations, Vitamin A tablets and de-worming medicine to children under 5.

The problem in the remote communities of Sierra Leone is that most people cannot distinguish malaria symptoms from those of other ailments. Often, if a doctor is not available, people use herbs to treat illness. Many, like the Beechers, take their children to the hospital as a last resort.

The United Methodist Church is training health workers and volunteers in Sierra Leone.
The United Methodist Church is training health
workers and volunteers in Sierra Leone.

In addition to donating the nets, The United Methodist Church provides funding to train health workers and volunteers, as well as community leaders and clergy who wield great influence. Along with distributing the nets, the health workers are expected to go back to the communities in their charge and educate the people on malaria symptoms. They focus on preventing malaria and responding to such symptoms as high fever, weakness and loss of appetite.

Local chiefs are expected to hold community meetings to inform residents about the campaign and the proper use of the nets. Chiefs are regarded highly in their rural communities, and any message from the chief carries significant weight.

Sierra Leone has a friendly relationship between its two main religions — Christianity and Islam. Over the past two months in Bo, where about half of the 648,000 United Methodist-donated bed nets have been distributed, pastors and Islamic sheiks have been preaching the anti-malaria message in churches and mosques.

Their message is universal: If people will use the insecticide-treated bed nets correctly and consistently, the malaria infection rate in the country can be reduced by 50 percent.

Through a follow-up campaign, known as Hang Up, volunteers will visit homes to ensure the nets are hung over the sleeping places. Wielding nails, ropes and hammers, the volunteers will assist families that have not hung their nets to do so.

Donations to the church’s Imagine No Malaria campaign can be made here.

*Jusu is a United Methodist communicator based in Sierra Leone.

News media contact: Heather Hahn, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470, or newsdesk@umcom.org.

Malaria is my name

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