Real lives

Reducing malaria fever

Assoua, prenatal consultation nurse of the village

By Parfait Kouassi

BOUAKÉ, Côte d’Ivoire, May 2007 – Malaria is the first cause of child mortality in Côte d’Ivoire. In the village of Angouayaokro, 30 Km West of Bouaké, in the centre of the country, malaria has for many years been the main reason for consultations.

This morning, about thirty women from the surrounding villages are waiting to be received for prenatal consultation. In this locality, where nearly 8,000 people suffered from malaria in 2006, it is through these pregnant women that Assoua, the village nurse, is trying to reduce the ravages of malaria.
“From March 2007 to April 2007, the rate of consultations for malaria reduced by 10%“, explains with satisfaction, Assoua Kouadio, the village nurse who, like UNICEF (in its health programme), has declared war on this disease.

Under its malaria prevention programme, UNICEF, with funding from the Japanese Government, has provided health centres with 326,000 insecticide-treated bed nets. This means of protection against the bite of the anopheles, carrier of malaria, is systematically offered during consultations of children under 5 years of age and every pregnant woman during her first prenatal consultation.

“This is a bed net. You should suspend it over your bed and sleep under it with your child”, explains Assoua to Mrs. Amani Ndri, mother of a one-year old boy and 20 weeks pregnant.

The nurse explains to this woman who had come for prenatal consultation that malaria is a threat to her pregnancy. “I will pass by to check whether you use it at home! », he warns, while giving her the insecticide- treated bed net.

UNICEF has also provided health centres with medical kits, that include various drugs, amongst others anti-malaria drugs.
To enable the country’s Pharmacie de la Santé Publique, the Public Health Pharmacy, to reconstitute its stock of drugs before the outbreak of the war and ensure regular supply to health districts, UNICEF has agreed to offer a discount on the revenue generated from the sale of drugs: 3% for regional health departments, 7% for health districts and 15% for health centres.

To enhance the efficiency of the fight, UNICEF has also included modules on malaria prevention and treatment in the training of health workers.
These trained Community Health Workers (CHW) are directly involved in the fight against malaria.

Clémentine Koffi, a mother of six, living at Angouayaokro, is delighted with this preventive approach to malaria control. “My children frequently suffered from malaria. Today, they are in good health”, she affirms.
In fact, Clémentine uses the insecticide-treated bed net offered to her by a dispensary of the village.

As for Jeanne Yobouet, a mother of two living in the compound adjacent to that of Clementine, after several days of hesitation, she finally decided to use the insecticide-treated bed net offered her.
“I know that what I did was not good“, she confesses by explaining that her 2-year old little girl fell ill because she did not use the bed net.

To treat her, “I made her take drugs bought from a street vendor, but she was not cured”, she says.
Thanks to the advice of Victorine N’guessan, a community health worker of the village, the mother took her child to the dispensary. “After taking the drugs from the dispensary, my daughter is now cured”, says Jeanne, who has now installed her insecticide-treated bed-net and intends to use it rigorously.

A mother and her child sleeping under an insecticide-treated bed net.

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