Chatham Courier > News
Malaria clinic provides free testing, help to children in Tanzania villages
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| Jennifer Conaway, left, and Nancy Wiley conduct malaria testing on a young boy in the Kisele village in Tanzania. Aisha Gothey photo |
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first story in a series of stories from Chatham Courier reporter Sesame Campbell, who is reporting from Tanzania in Africa.
By Sesame Campbell
MKURANGA DISTRICT, Tanzania — Thousands of children in Tanzania’s Mkuranga District die each year from malaria, but new technology may help reduce those numbers by providing researchers with critical information that can help them find effective treatment for the terrible disease.
“Malaria is a big problem in Tanzania and kills one out of five children under the age of 5,” said Denise Stasik, a microbiologist and case manager for MVP. “In nearby Zimbabwe it is three in five.”
Stasik is also a member of Team Rafiki (TR), a New York-based group that partnered with African Reflections Foundation (ARF) to bring a team of 17 volunteers to Tanzania with supplies and assistance for several villages in the Mkuranga District.
The volunteers bring with them a wide range of expertise and interests. The team includes a retired teacher, a retired Albany City Firefighter, a New York state Lottery procurement officer and several in the health care industry, like Stasik. She worked for the NYS Department of Health, a local hospital and has taught as an adjunct professor at various colleges.
Jennifer Conaway, a student at SUNY Albany School of Public Health is one of the volunteers who came to the village of Kiziko with ARF/TR to take blood samples from children under the age of 12.
Now in her second year at SUNY Albany, Conaway is getting her MS degree in epidemiology. Since high school she has been interested in studying microbiology and the spread of outbreaks. Conaway heard about the TR/ARF through Stasik and hopes to incorporate the malaria testing project into her graduate thesis.
“Malaria is a big problem in Tanzania,” Conaway said. “Mortality is higher in children because of lack of immunity. I will look specifically at drug resistance in malaria and will be taking blood samples from children under the age of 12 to find more specific treatment for them.”
Malaria is a blood-born parasite that travels from the vector (mosquito) into the host (human). The mosquito bites a person, pulls out their blood and injects the malaria parasite into their blood stream. Poverty is one of the main causes of the high malaria mortality rate among children. Effective treatment requires immediate medical attention. Because malaria has several strains, the purpose of the malaria testing is to identify the appropriate strand for treatment. Conaway’s project utilizes a new kind of technology called pyro-sequencing.
“What pyro-sequencing does is amplify certain segments of DNA strands,” Stasik said. “With the more traditional treatment you can only do one drug-resistant strand at a time. This allows multiple strands to be examined simultaneously.”
Stasik explained why the volunteers wanted to come back to this particular area for this project. “It is because of our previous experience with the village when we saw two sick children with malaria fever. We saw there was limited medicine and we wanted to help. We told the villagers that if their children are too weak to come we will come pick them up,” she said.
In preparation for the malaria testing, ARF Founder Maria Pool sat down with Fatima Masauni, the government-appointed leader of Kisele village, along with Khadija Mwanga, a village women in charge of the ARF Women’s Project, an entrepreneurial, sustainability project that seeks to create financial empowerment for African women. Pool explained the medical procedure to the women in Swahili and asked for their permission to begin testing the children.
Pool facilitated the conversation between ARF/TR and villagers, translating Masauni’s Swahili response to the team members. “As head of the village she said she knows the problems children face with malaria,” Pool said. “Her granddaughter has suffered from severe symptoms for a month and she appreciates the help.”
Masauni responded in Swahili that malaria is the number one killer of children in the area so she really appreciated the help provided by ARF/TR.
Pool asked Masaui if she and the other women could get the word out to the women in the village to bring their children for testing. The village leader agreed.
Within minutes, mothers and their children formed a line outside the clinic built over the past year by members of TR and ARF. It was officially opened by Dr. Christine Ishengoma, the former regional commissioner of the Coastal Region of Tanzania, in November 2008. The clinic has been the only source of medical care for some members of the village.
Inside the clinic, a table was set up by team members. A consent questionnaire was mandatory for children who were tested at the clinic. Children were brought in, picked out a stuffed animal and sat on their mother’s lap while she answered the questions for the intake that were translated in Swahili. Following signatures, fingers were swabbed and stuck. Some children had their samples taken without a sound, while others wailed. Afterward, lollipops and stickers were given to the children. One small boy, covered in scabs from a fungal infection, was brought to the hospital for treatment.
Unlike Kisele Village, where a nearby hospital was within walking distance to residents, Kiziko villagers had no means of transportation to the hospital. Infant mortality is high and even those children who have received some treatment for malaria, not one child tested had been effectively treated. From Kisele to Kiziko, it was 6 kilometers, a half-hour car ride. The Mkuranga District hospital was the closest hospital, where conditions are so desperate that doctors often have to choose who lives and who dies.
An open-air clinic was brought into Kiziko by the volunteers and first-aid was dispensed by the volunteers to hundreds of villagers. Most had never seen a doctor. Several people were driven to the nearby hospital, including a small child with a tooth so badly abscessed that his face was swollen to twice its size. An older man suffered from what appeared to be leprosy. His hands and feet were rotting away and when asked if he had been to the hospital, he said no. One woman complained that her leg hurt. When volunteers saw the ulcers and gangrene that was eating away her leg, they insisted she be taken for treatment.
There were age disparities between many parents and their children. When asked for background information, it was discovered that some of these children were the victims of the AIDS epidemic which took their parents. Some of the children were cared for by guardians no more than children themselves. One 16-year-old mother, dressed in rags, reported that her husband had abandoned her. She was concerned that her child would die soon if not treated.
The gratitude expressed by residents and the Village Chairman Kitutu was heartbreaking. “What is in Kiziko cannot be expressed in words. In Swahili, Rafiki means ‘friendship.’ What you have left for the village really means friendship. I have come to say thank you very much. Wherever you go remember us. Sorry if there was any inconvenience. The people in Kiziko need your help. That is why I traveled here to say thank you. I don’t have the vocabulary to say thank you. We will never forget you.”
He turned to Pool and grasped her hand. “Mama Maria…” he broke down and began to cry. “I am not a spokesman for all of Africa, or for the District of Mkuranga. But for my village we appreciate very much. Thank you … thank you … thank you very much.”
Pool became emotional too. She turned to one of the volunteers and said, “Now you know why I do this work. It is because I must. These people have nothing. We must do everything we can to help them. They have no one else.”
“Malaria is a big problem in Tanzania and kills one out of five children under the age of 5,” said Denise Stasik, a microbiologist and case manager for MVP. “In nearby Zimbabwe it is three in five.”
Stasik is also a member of Team Rafiki (TR), a New York-based group that partnered with African Reflections Foundation (ARF) to bring a team of 17 volunteers to Tanzania with supplies and assistance for several villages in the Mkuranga District.
The volunteers bring with them a wide range of expertise and interests. The team includes a retired teacher, a retired Albany City Firefighter, a New York state Lottery procurement officer and several in the health care industry, like Stasik. She worked for the NYS Department of Health, a local hospital and has taught as an adjunct professor at various colleges.
Jennifer Conaway, a student at SUNY Albany School of Public Health is one of the volunteers who came to the village of Kiziko with ARF/TR to take blood samples from children under the age of 12.
Now in her second year at SUNY Albany, Conaway is getting her MS degree in epidemiology. Since high school she has been interested in studying microbiology and the spread of outbreaks. Conaway heard about the TR/ARF through Stasik and hopes to incorporate the malaria testing project into her graduate thesis.
“Malaria is a big problem in Tanzania,” Conaway said. “Mortality is higher in children because of lack of immunity. I will look specifically at drug resistance in malaria and will be taking blood samples from children under the age of 12 to find more specific treatment for them.”
Malaria is a blood-born parasite that travels from the vector (mosquito) into the host (human). The mosquito bites a person, pulls out their blood and injects the malaria parasite into their blood stream. Poverty is one of the main causes of the high malaria mortality rate among children. Effective treatment requires immediate medical attention. Because malaria has several strains, the purpose of the malaria testing is to identify the appropriate strand for treatment. Conaway’s project utilizes a new kind of technology called pyro-sequencing.
“What pyro-sequencing does is amplify certain segments of DNA strands,” Stasik said. “With the more traditional treatment you can only do one drug-resistant strand at a time. This allows multiple strands to be examined simultaneously.”
Stasik explained why the volunteers wanted to come back to this particular area for this project. “It is because of our previous experience with the village when we saw two sick children with malaria fever. We saw there was limited medicine and we wanted to help. We told the villagers that if their children are too weak to come we will come pick them up,” she said.
In preparation for the malaria testing, ARF Founder Maria Pool sat down with Fatima Masauni, the government-appointed leader of Kisele village, along with Khadija Mwanga, a village women in charge of the ARF Women’s Project, an entrepreneurial, sustainability project that seeks to create financial empowerment for African women. Pool explained the medical procedure to the women in Swahili and asked for their permission to begin testing the children.
Pool facilitated the conversation between ARF/TR and villagers, translating Masauni’s Swahili response to the team members. “As head of the village she said she knows the problems children face with malaria,” Pool said. “Her granddaughter has suffered from severe symptoms for a month and she appreciates the help.”
Masauni responded in Swahili that malaria is the number one killer of children in the area so she really appreciated the help provided by ARF/TR.
Pool asked Masaui if she and the other women could get the word out to the women in the village to bring their children for testing. The village leader agreed.
Within minutes, mothers and their children formed a line outside the clinic built over the past year by members of TR and ARF. It was officially opened by Dr. Christine Ishengoma, the former regional commissioner of the Coastal Region of Tanzania, in November 2008. The clinic has been the only source of medical care for some members of the village.
Inside the clinic, a table was set up by team members. A consent questionnaire was mandatory for children who were tested at the clinic. Children were brought in, picked out a stuffed animal and sat on their mother’s lap while she answered the questions for the intake that were translated in Swahili. Following signatures, fingers were swabbed and stuck. Some children had their samples taken without a sound, while others wailed. Afterward, lollipops and stickers were given to the children. One small boy, covered in scabs from a fungal infection, was brought to the hospital for treatment.
Unlike Kisele Village, where a nearby hospital was within walking distance to residents, Kiziko villagers had no means of transportation to the hospital. Infant mortality is high and even those children who have received some treatment for malaria, not one child tested had been effectively treated. From Kisele to Kiziko, it was 6 kilometers, a half-hour car ride. The Mkuranga District hospital was the closest hospital, where conditions are so desperate that doctors often have to choose who lives and who dies.
An open-air clinic was brought into Kiziko by the volunteers and first-aid was dispensed by the volunteers to hundreds of villagers. Most had never seen a doctor. Several people were driven to the nearby hospital, including a small child with a tooth so badly abscessed that his face was swollen to twice its size. An older man suffered from what appeared to be leprosy. His hands and feet were rotting away and when asked if he had been to the hospital, he said no. One woman complained that her leg hurt. When volunteers saw the ulcers and gangrene that was eating away her leg, they insisted she be taken for treatment.
There were age disparities between many parents and their children. When asked for background information, it was discovered that some of these children were the victims of the AIDS epidemic which took their parents. Some of the children were cared for by guardians no more than children themselves. One 16-year-old mother, dressed in rags, reported that her husband had abandoned her. She was concerned that her child would die soon if not treated.
The gratitude expressed by residents and the Village Chairman Kitutu was heartbreaking. “What is in Kiziko cannot be expressed in words. In Swahili, Rafiki means ‘friendship.’ What you have left for the village really means friendship. I have come to say thank you very much. Wherever you go remember us. Sorry if there was any inconvenience. The people in Kiziko need your help. That is why I traveled here to say thank you. I don’t have the vocabulary to say thank you. We will never forget you.”
He turned to Pool and grasped her hand. “Mama Maria…” he broke down and began to cry. “I am not a spokesman for all of Africa, or for the District of Mkuranga. But for my village we appreciate very much. Thank you … thank you … thank you very much.”
Pool became emotional too. She turned to one of the volunteers and said, “Now you know why I do this work. It is because I must. These people have nothing. We must do everything we can to help them. They have no one else.”
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