Women and children under five are the most vulnerable to malaria

These men are learning how to identify and clear mosquito breeding grounds

Guatemala has the highest incidence of malaria in Central America. When we began this project in 2005 the areas in question were two of the most malaria endemic in Guatemala, now as a result of our programme many of the communities recorded zero cases in 2009. Read more about LEPRA’s work in Guatemala.

The number of new malaria cases in the project area has been reduced from 2171 in 2007 to just 102 in 2009 (5% of total in 2007). We can attribute much of the success of this project to the unique approach taken to involving local communities and mobilising them to take action in efforts to combat this disease. 

The traditional approaches to controlling malaria by providing bed nets, ensuring laboratory testing facilities are available and providing funds to improve government health infrastructure are just not enough. We took an approach which also involved communities from the very outset and this is where we achieved success.

This ‘social mobilisation’ was a massive undertaking involving training government health staff and traditional birth attendants and then training them as trainers for community groups and volunteers. Together they are responsible for collecting and testing blood where labs are available. They are also responsible for cleaning mosquito breeding sites in ponds and the general environment.

At last communities are able to control the spread of malaria themselves which has resulted the reductions in malaria cases we are seeing. 400 traditional birth attendants are now trained to recognise the signs and symptoms of the disease in pregnant women and children under 5, two of the most vulnerable groups. Annual deaths from malaria worldwide are around 850,000 with the majority of these being women and children under 5 years old, the latter accounting for 85% of malaria deaths.

The project focuses on 252 rural indigenous communities in Ixcán and Fray Bartolome de las Casas, benefiting more than 100,000 indigenous people. 60% of the total population of Guatemala is made up of indigenous people with 75% of these living in poverty. Malaria has been described as first and foremost a disease of poverty most notably by Nobel prize winning economist Jeffrey Sachs.

Some interesting facts:

• Guatemala is cited as having the highest annual incidence of malaria in Central America (National Malaria Programme, Guatemala) and in 2005 when the project began, almost half of the registered malaria cases in Central America where in Guatemala (Pan American Health Organization)
• Although infant and child mortality has been steadily decreasing throughout Latin America over the last four decades, child mortality is still 70 per cent higher among indigenous children.
• Indigenous peoples’ poverty rates are 2.8 times higher than the rest of the population in Guatemala.
• There is a 13 year gap in years of life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous people in Guatemala(3 points above taken from the 2009 UN Report State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples).

(2 testimonials)

Posted by nicolettedawson 12:14 12.07.2010

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