Stomping Out Malaria Bootcamp

I was recently given the wonderful opportunity to attend the 9th Stomp Out Malaria Boot Camp in Theis.  Theis? What's so special about that, you go there all the time.  Sure, but what made this time so cool was that this event was Pan-African. Thirty-six other volunteers and Peace Corps employees from 18 different countries all around Africa came together to have an intense and in depth discussion on something that has plagued all of our communities: malaria.

Where does malaria come from? Who is most at risk? What are some of the best practices we has health workers can bring back to our communities? Is there an end in site?  During the 10 day training with 12 hour days, we delved deeper into these topics than I ever have before.  We got to Skype with leading professionals in their fields, see a community that had essentially eradicated malaria (gasp, it can be done!), visit an entomology lab that breeds and tests mosquitoes in order to stay up to date on how effective the preventative measures we use are, and share cross-country tactics we can use in our own communities.

In Africa malaria is an endemic disease, with 85% of malaria cases and 90% of deaths worldwide.  The most at risk groups are pregnant women and children under 5 (85% of malaria deaths are children under 5).  Malaria initiatives are very focused on these groups- in Senegal pregnant women receive free nets and malaria prophylaxis at their pre-natal visits, and children under 10 can receive free malaria treatment at a health post.  Senegal has been doing some really innovative work in order to reach pre-elimination stage.

Although pregnant women and children are the most susceptible, pre-elimination is not possible by targeting them alone.  Senegal is in their second wave of universal bed net distributions.  Many countries do not do free, universal coverage campaigns.  They tend to offer subsidized nets or free nets to at-risk groups.  But Senegal found they weren't getting the results they wanted, and are now doing another round of universal distribution.

Senegal also has the PECADOM program, and is scaling up a new and improved PECADOM Plus program.  The PECADOM program places a community health worker, called a DS-DOM, in a rural location (where the population is farther from health facilities and therefore more likely to die) with a backpack full of anti-malarial drugs.  These drugs are free, and anyone can come to this worker at any time to receive treatment.  The PECADOM Plus program, however, takes this model and changes it from a passive to an active treatment.  In the Plus program, community health workers do sweeps of their catchement and actively look for cases of malaria.  Statistics show this model is more effective and saves more lives, and Senegal is hoping to expand the program from Kedougou to Kolda and Tambacounda as well.

But the awesome thing about this training was that it wasn't all about Senegal.  Sure, Senegal is doing some really awesome things, but so are other countries.  I learned that co-infection of AIDS and malaria is a huge problem in East Africa.  I learned that they're making a vaccination that should wipe out the disease, but even though there's that light at the end of the tunnel, we can't stop trying to stomp out malaria because there are millions of people between then and now that could die.


But this camp was more than just malaria related. It was also the perfect opportunity to share our adopted cultures and discover how similar our experiences are despite geographical differences.  There was some volunteer to volunteer competition: You think your hut is tiny? You think that's a bad giardia experience? You think 14 hours is a long car ride? Well, let me tell you...

And that bonding experience is important.  Knowing that every Peace Corps Volunteer faces the same day to day challenges, no matter the culture, or living situation or country, is extremely comforting.  When I meet another Peace Corps Volunteer, I know that I can have an engaging, exclusive, culturally stimulating conversation, and they'll get it.  And that led me to something that I really needed: a renewed sense of purpose.  A lot of time volunteers can feel overwhelmed with the amount of options we have for work, or feel lost in a larger purpose.  Malaria kills 500,000 people a year, what can I do in my village of 450 people to have any impact on that number?