Malaria, poverty kill children in Angola
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose Domingos Antonic lies dying of malaria at the provincial hospital in Malanje.
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Domingos
Antonic lies dying of malaria at the provincial hospital in Malanje,
Angola. The 8-month-old boy had been sick for several days before his
family brought him to the hospital. Malaria is the leading cause of
death for children under 5 in this African country. A UMNS photo by Mike
DuBose. Photo #06-1158. Accompanies UMNS story #594. 10/6/06 |
Oct. 5, 2006
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
MALANJE, Angola (UMNS) — At 3:50 p.m. on Sept. 25, 8-month-old Domingos
Antonic died.
Malaria and poverty killed him.
A $10 mosquito net might have saved his life. A clean neighborhood
sprayed with pesticide surely would have.
Forty-six percent of all the deaths in Malanje are related to malaria.
Malaria is the No. 1 cause of death for children under 5 in this southwest
African country.
A delegation from the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and
United Methodist Communications visited two cities in Angola — Malanje and
Luanda -- Sept. 24-Oct. 1. The group toured hospitals, clinics, orphanages,
schools and churches to explore ways to prevent malaria and other
communicable diseases by providing greater access to health care.
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose Dr. Laurinda Vidal Quipungo (left) gives urgent orders in an effort to save the life of 8-month-old Domingos Antonic.
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Dr.
Laurinda Vidal Quipungo (left) gives urgent orders in an effort to save
the life of 8-month-old Domingos Antonic, who lies dying of malaria at
the provincial hospital in Malanje, Angola. “The image of what you saw —
a dying child — is very frequent here. It is our reality,” Quipungo
says. “Sometimes we will have two or three children die on us in the
same day.” At right is the boy’s aunt, who helped bring him to the
hospital. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo #06-1159. Accompanies UMNS
story #594. 10/6/06 |
Dr. Laurinda Vidal Quipungo is a pediatric doctor who works part-time at
the Malanje Provincial Hospital, and she is the wife of Bishop Jose Quipungo
of the United Methodist Church's East Angola Annual (regional) Conference.
She led the delegation on a tour of the hospital until she stopped to become
part of a team fighting to save Domingos' life.
The team lost the battle because it lacked the medical supplies and the
time needed to save him.
"The image of what you saw — a dying child — is very frequent here. It is
our reality," she said. "Sometimes we will have two or three children die on
us in the same day."
Domingos weighed only 7 kilograms when he came into the hospital. He had
been sick for several days before the family brought him in for treatment.
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose Feliciana Domingos and her 1-year-old daughter Sarafine Lorenço take shelter beneath a mosquito net at their home.
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Feliciana
Domingos and her 1-year-old daughter Sarafine Lorenço take shelter
beneath a mosquito net at their home in the Maxinde neighborhood near
Malanje, Angola. Five family members share the small, mud brick house.
Forty-six percent of all the deaths in Malanje are related to malaria.
The disease is the leading cause of death for children under 5 in this
African country. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo #06-1160.
Accompanies UMNS story #594. 10/6/06 |
He was suffering from acute anemia and couldn't breathe. "His veins were
so small it was hard to give him the transfusion he desperately needed,"
Quipungo said. "A pediatric surgeon would have been able to cut deeper and
find a vein. It might have saved his life."
Asked what else would have saved his life, she answered softly, "Oxygen."
The hospital does not even have an oxygen tank.
The heartbreak is even harder to deal with knowing that malaria is a
disease that can be prevented and cured, she said.
War-torn country
Angola has only been at peace for the past four years. Much of the
country's fertile farm land is riddled with landmines. Luanda, the capital
city, has a population of 5 million in a city built for 800,000. Most of the
population lives in mud shacks built from whatever scraps the inhabitants
could find and mash together for walls and ceilings.
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose Dr. Pedro Antonio examines a stagnant pond for signs of mosquito infestation as part of his efforts to control malaria.
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Dr.
Pedro Antonio, a public health official in Malanje, Angola, examines a
stagnant pond for signs of mosquito infestation as part of his efforts
to control malaria. “This is a holiday resort for mosquitoes,” said Dr.
Pedro Chagas, director of health for the province. “They love it here.” A
UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo #06-1161. Accompanies UMNS story #594.
10/6/06 |
In Luanda, roads are clogged with traffic from morning to night, slowed
by giant potholes. In places, the roads seem to be made of nothing more than
layers of garbage compacted into hard clumps and covered with mud.
In both cities, neighborhoods are cesspools of garbage and stagnant
water. Human waste streams down the hillside into the water supply.
Lumbering yellow trucks come daily to fill their tanks with contaminated
water, which is then distributed throughout the cities. Children play in
sewage holes and splash through mosquito-larva-covered ditches.
Dr. Pedro Francisco Chagas, administrator of the Malanje Provincial
Hospital, took the delegation on a tour of the Maxinde neighborhood.
Pointing to a pool of stagnant water covered by a thin veil of green slime,
he said, "This is a holiday resort for mosquitoes. They love it here."
Close by the open ditch, women baked bread and muffins to sell at the
market. A concrete structure has been built around an underground water
supply. The structure was built to protect the fresh water, Chagas
explained.
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose A barefoot girl plays alongside an open sewer in the Maxinde neighborhood near Malanje, site of a cholera outbreak last year.
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A
barefoot girl plays alongside an open sewer in the Maxinde neighborhood
near Malanje, Angola, site of a cholera outbreak last year. Public
health officials are also concerned about malaria-carrying mosquitoes
breeding in the stagnant water. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo
#06-1162. Accompanies UMNS story #594. 10/6/06 |
A huge pool of muddy, smelly water next to the well is used by most of
the neighborhood. The city has ordered the neighbors to cover the hole, but
a local resident said a bulldozer is needed to help. "It is too much work to
do by hand," the man told Chagas.
"That is a common problem," Chagas said. "The community is asked to do
something, but they don't have the means to do it."
People carry buckets of water from the well. "There is supposed to be
water just for washing, but the buckets often get mixed up with the ones for
drinking water," he said.
This same neighborhood had an outbreak of cholera during the last rainy
season. More than 4,000 cases were reported in Malanje, and 246 people died.
Chagas fears the same thing will happen this year because nothing has been
done to clean the neighborhoods. The rainy season has just begun.
About 3,300 people live in Maxinde, and it is a typical neighborhood, he
explained.
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose A water tanker truck stops to fill up at a community well in the Maxinde neighborhood.
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A
water tanker truck stops to fill up at a community well in the Maxinde
neighborhood near Malanje, Angola, site of a cholera outbreak last year.
The drinking water will be distributed to individual homes. A UMNS
photo by Mike DuBose. Photo #06-1163. Accompanies UMNS story #594.
10/6/06 |
In a small hut, Feliciana Domingos carried 1-year-old Sarafine in her
arms. She showed the delegation the mosquito nets she uses to cover herself,
her husband, two children and a brother-in-law. A breeze from the open
window gently blew the netting.
Chagas said the hospital received 300,000 mosquito nets last year. "We
need 1.2 million to cover everyone," he said.
Even with more mosquito nets, the problem of the mosquitoes would still
exist, Quipungo said. "We don't have enough medicine to treat everyone with
malaria."
Shaking her head, she said, "The needs are so many."
*Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org. Audio
Dr. Laurinda Vidal Quipungo: "Sometimes two or three die in a day."
The Rev. Domingos Kafuanda: "Child died on Monday."
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Resources
Angola mission profile
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General Board of Global Ministries
Africa Malaria Initiative
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