Being
a Hobartian by birth it is easy to believe that diseases like malaria should be
no more relevant to me then remembering to take anti-malarials when I go on my
summer holidays. But this disease, that still affects 200 million people around
the world every year and causes major mortality, especially in the vulnerable,
is more relevant to us than we realise.
 |
| Marita Jones - RESULTS member, junior doctor and guest blogger. |
I
work as a junior doctor in the local emergency department and recently a woman
came in very sick with fevers and hallucinations. She had been travelling to
Bangladesh where her young child fell sick, so she had to spend 5 days with him
in the local hospital. She was exposed to every possible disease, as she did
not want to be separated from her sick child. We found out a few days later
when results came back that she had been exposed to malaria and typhoid fever.
During her 6 hours in the department numerous staff members, children and
elderly people were put at risk.
Communicable
diseases such as malaria, typhoid and TB do not respect borders and disease
outbreaks in regions close to Australia, particularly drug resistant strains,
pose a real threat to us all. 42,000 people in the Asia-Pacific region died from
malaria in 2010. An increase in malaria cases in Australia, where we would be
slow to diagnose, as it is uncommon, could be disastrous especially for
children under 5 years old, who are most vulnerable to dying.
Malaria
is not only deadly, but it also means lost income for parents and lost ability
to go to school for children. Other than direct health impact the disease
burden in the Asia-Pacific region affects Australia in many other ways. For
example, as a trade and tourism partner and as an inhibitor for countries in
the region to become self-sufficient and less reliant on Australian aid. Many
Australian citizens are from countries with rampant malaria and their families
still suffer.
The
good news is malaria deaths have been cut by 26% since 2000. This is largely
due to treatment and prevention programmes run by governments and funded through
the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
There
is much that can be done:
- Appropriate diagnosis and treatment of malaria with artemisinin, the affordable most effective drug
- Widespread use of insecticide treated bed nets
- Education about the early signs of malaria so families can seek medical care
- Education about prevention such as covering open water sources or avoiding water collections after rain where the mosquitoes breed
Tasmanian
researchers from the Menzies Research Institute are playing their part, doing very
special work to find new treatments strategies to fight malaria and genetic
susceptibility to disease and resistance[1].
I
am proud that AusAID hosted Malaria 2012 in Sydney recently, and applaud the
announcement of an additional $100 million of funding to scale up the response
to the disease in the region.
Malaria
is a great example of an international disease with local relevance and we can
all be a part of the target to reduce malaria cases and deaths in the
Asia-Pacific by 75% by 2015.
Well done Australia.
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