Project Hope: Official Report
Project’s Key Points:
Our goal is to help people in endemic areas of Africa, specifically Equatorial Guinea, by providing vaccinations for yellow fever and dengue fever, offering treatment programs for malaria, and mosquito netting for all residents. In addition, we are also planning to educate the population’s health care providers and community leaders about everyday practices they can perform themselves in order to avoid getting bitten, reduce mosquito breeding grounds, care for their sick, and to participate in protecting their neighborhoods and communities from mosquitoes by cooperatively assisting with spraying DDT. One other major aspect of our plan is for it to be effective, for good and successful word to spread, and for plans such as this to develop elsewhere.
Discussing the Issues:
As you may or may not know, many vector-borne pathogens have persisted to cause sickness and death in developing countries due to lack of financial support, resources, and proper education. Unfortunately the health care systems in most areas are in shambles. Hospitals do not have proper equipment or medical education to deal with the endemics that face their communities. The community leaders and members are also uneducated about the causes and preventions of the diseases that ail them. Even if they were aware, they do not have the financial recourses to help themselves.
Malaria is one example of a vector-borne pathogen that remains problematic throughout the tropics around the globe. Malaria is caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium and transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquito. Malaria kills more than 3,000 children under the age of five and more than a total of 1.5 million people each year. According to the WHO (or the World Health Organization) malaria has an infection rate of approximately 400 to 500 million people each year. The majority of these cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa where poverty causes the pathogen to spread more rapidly, causing endemics. Malaria is both a treatable and preventable pathogen with the technology we have today. Although these preventative options are available there has been little to no improvement in the areas where this pathogen is endemic.
Yellow Fever, another tropical vector-borne pathogen, is a viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes of the Aedes genus. Historical reports have claimed a mortality rate of between 1 in 17 (5.8%) and 1 in 3 (33%). The WHO fact-sheet on yellow fever, updated in 2001, states that 15% of patients enter a "toxic phase" and that half of that number die within ten to fourteen days, with the other half recovering. Preventing this virus is possible with the provision of netting, long-sleeved clothing, and an available vaccine.
Dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are acute febrile diseases, found in tropical areas as well as most areas in Africa. Dengue fever is caused by one of four closely related virus serotypes of the genus Flavivirus. There is no cross-protection and epidemics caused by multiple serotypes can also occur. This means that you are not necessarily protected from a re-occurring infection of Dengue fever if you have already had an infection from one type of the virus. Dengue fever is transmitted to humans by the Aedes aegypti (and rarely Aedes albopictus) mosquito, which feeds during the day. Protection can be offered through protective netting and long sleeves.
A Call for Action:
Reasons for helping the people in this area are as follows: Although Equatorial Guinea has not had what is considered an endemic in a few years, it lies in the endemic band for malaria, yellow fever, and dengue fever. These three pathogens cause thousands of deaths each year, mostly in young children. The majority of the people of this area are uneducated involving general health and hygiene, medicine, and mosquito borne illnesses and do not have the money or resources to help themselves even if they did. Because the transmission of these pathogens is so high, the virulence has remained high. Decreasing the ability for the mosquitoes to bite will lower the transmission of these vector-borne diseases. Eventually this decreased transmission will force the pathogens to evolve to be less virulent. The less virulent the pathogen is, the more easily we can treat it, and the more time an infected person has to get the proper help. Giving the medical profession and the local communities proper education about prevention and care will assist this process. Vaccinating for these diseases is recommended to begin this long journey.
Budget:
Project Hope intends on using the funding to help eliminate any future suffering from these diseases in the small country of Equatorial Guinea. The population there is approximately 486,900 people and it is located in tropical Africa. Our budget will be divided and utilized in the following useful projects: Providing Netting: $2,069,325. Vaccinating for Yellow Fever: $936,933. Providing Anti-Malarial drugs: $618,363. Spraying DDT: $365,175. Community and Health Care Education and Miscellaneous (see below): $444,239.50 ***Cost of vaccines based on one in four being in areas where more virulent strains subside (more costly to treat). Costs of Anti-malaria drugs are based on the same scale. Cost of DDT spray based on four people per household. Nets sleep two people each***.
Our Plan of Action:
First and most importantly, Project Hope would like to provide mosquito netting for the entire population. Nets range from 7-10 dollars each and they sleep two people. Although this effort will consume about half of our funding, we feel it will be our most effective contribution because the mosquitoes carrying malaria (the most harmful of the discussed pathogens) travel at night. If the mosquitoes cannot effectively bite people then the diseases will be unable to spread to other uninfected hosts. Over time this hopefully will decrease the virulence of the pathogen in this area. The nets in combination with education to community leaders will help the population realize the importance of sleeping underneath nets as well as wearing long-sleeved clothing.
Secondly we would like to provide vaccinations for every member of the country. Vaccinating for yellow fever costs about $0.65-$7.00 per person and the anti-malaria drugs ranges from $0.08-$5.00 per person. Providing vaccinations and drug treatment options for these two major diseases will help decrease transmission and virulence of Yellow Fever and Malaria.
Another larger portion of the budget will go toward the DDT spraying effort. Spraying costs about $3.00-$4.00 per house. It has shown to reduce malaria 61% over-all. In many areas of this region DDT spraying has already been completed due to newly found sources of oil. The United State’s has increased their interest in this area which has expanded funding. Additional contributions of 7.8 million dollars have been supplied by Marathon Oil and Noble Energy. The current efforts by Bioko have reduced malaria by 80% in some regions. Although promising, the effort may be short-lived due to conflicting opinions that DDT spraying will only reduce the pathogen temporarily due to the mosquitoes’ ability to cross borders over time. We feel that the reduction of mosquitoes and disease outweighs any current environmental concerns.
The remaining moneys will be spent to educate community leaders, teachers, medical personnel, and families. Education will provide knowledge on how to use the netting, where to get the vaccines, and will notify when cooperative DDT spraying of housing units and buildings will occur. We intend on organizing significant community programs to keep its members notified and educated in the future. Other points of interest and teaching will include; information about the transmission by mosquitos, the importance of netting for healthy and sick individuals, steps on permanently eliminating stagnant water, improving their housing situations if necessary, etc. Half of the total educational funding will used to educate specifically the medical staff of Equatorial New Guinea. Educating the medical staff will offer significant improvements in health care and disease prevention. A one day tutorial will be given with the incentive of one full day’s pay. The average medical worker earns approximately $500 each month. There are about 300 staff members including nurses, doctors, and midwives that will need to attend the tutorial. The total cost will be approximately 5,236 dollars, a small price to pay to insure all those available will attend.
As you can see, a lot of work needs to be accomplished. Not only do the people of these poorer countries need materials, they also need the education to keep hope alive in the future.