Doreen Nawa, AfricaNews reporter in Lusaka, Zambia
For her first pregnancy, Kezia Banda did not like the idea of taking sulfdoxine pyremethanine, known by the brand name Fansidar, the recommended drug to protect her against malaria. The longer time she needs to complete a full dose of the malaria course puts her off. Banda always dribbled the nurse saying she will take it home with a fruit.
In all Government clinics, it is mandatory that every pregnant woman who attends antenatal clinic takes an anti-malarial drug three times before giving birth.
And to make sure that mothers to-be take the prescribed anti-malaria drug, the nurses will ensure that it is taken in their presence at the clinic, a thing that most pregnant women abhor.
But for Mrs Banda, the truth was she never took the medication and instead threw it away on her way back home from the antenatal clinic.
Little did she know that the malaria attack was closer than ever and the results were severe. At four months she started experiencing fever, chills, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms, and traditionally she thought her body was getting accustomed to the pregnancy changes.
The situation got serious and when she was taken to the hospital, she had a miscarriage.
Miscarriage rate
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), pregnant women who acquire malaria have a highly elevated rate of miscarriage. The miscarriage rate for pregnant women with malaria may be as high as 60%.
While malaria is both treatable and preventable, if left untreated it can cause severe complications and even death.
From a medical point of view, malaria can also increase the risk of stillbirth and neonatal death. Malaria is one of the main causes of miscarriage in developing countries including Zambia.
Malaria is especially dangerous for pregnant women and their unborn children. It is caused by a parasite that attacks and kills the blood cells of humans, which can lead to anemia. If a pregnant woman is infected with malaria, the disease can be transmitted through her blood to the fetus, leading to stunting at birth and stillbirth.
When a woman becomes pregnant especially for the first time, they lose their built-up immunity to the disease and once they have an attack, if not treated early, women have miscarriages.
A reduced level of healthy red blood cells leads to anemia which leads to death or various internal-organ health problems. It is associated with retarding the growth of a fetus and lower child-survival rates.
Currently, Mrs Banda is pregnant again and this time she makes sure that she takes her medication at the clinic in the presence of the nurse whenever she goes for the antenatal at Lusaka’s Chelstone Clinic.
She needs to take it three times before giving birth to protect herself and the unborn baby from malaria which caused a miscarriage during her first pregnancy.
Ms Banda is one of the many women in malaria-endemic countries like Zambia where the Ministry of Health has made it mandatory for every pregnant woman to take a malarial drugs three times prior to giving birth.
During her previous pregnancy, Mrs Banda was never protected against malaria which meant that she was at risk contracting to malaria. Surely she did have malaria and lost her pregnancy.
She is now remaining with only a dose of fansidar during her pregnancy. Since she receives her treatment at the health clinic during her pregnancy care visits, she does not throw away the medicine and has never had a fever or contracted malaria.
Malaria, by its complexity of involving health as well as environmental and socioeconomic determinants and consequences, relates virtually to all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
In a bid to reduce the country’s malaria burden, health workers at all centres countrywide do carryout malaria education, diagnosis and treatment to would-be mothers that visit the health centre for route antenatal check ups.
Ending death
Ending death from malaria is a goal of Zambia’s Ministry of Health as well as WHO and it is up to the mothers to heed and take the recommended drugs to prevent death and of their unborn babies.
Approximately 40 percent of the world’s population, mostly those living in developing countries are at risk of malaria. In Zambia about 6, 000 people died of malaria each year among the population of about 13.5 million.
The World Health Organisation estimates that malaria causes nearly a million deaths a year, mostly among African children. The disease is a major cause of lost work productivity in endemic countries.
Such strategies used to fight malaria are something women ought to go for. Health experts say pregnant women are more susceptible to the disease than other adults, especially women who are pregnant for the first time.
Up to 30 million African women become pregnant each year in areas where malaria is prevalent, and more than 200,000 newborns die each of the disease.
The goals include making sure that the quality of the work at health facilities is optimal, that women are receiving education, [and that] new doctors, nurses and midwives are all learning new policies to practice in health facility settings.
More than 1 million of the 300-500 million cases of malaria each year result in death. Malaria is the leading cause of death for children under age five in sub-Saharan Africa, and a predominant killer of pregnant women and their unborn children.
Malaria costs Africa an estimated $12 billion in lost productivity each year.
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