Initiatives on Malaria ... (3)
------------------------------
Source: malaria@wehi.edu.au
I discussed Robs letter with some African Ph D students here who have
worked with malaria in Burkina, Cameroon and Senegal. One of them said
that it was frustrating how relatively easy it was to money for a proj-
ect on PCR diagnostics of subspecies of An. gambiae knowing that all of
them are vectors of malaria and that the money spent on two months
chemicals for PCR could pay a microscope for several clinics outside
the large cities. These clinics have no microscopes and malaria diagno-
sis are based on general impressions and these are - as shown in many
studies - more often wrong than right.
Another student said that one of the main points was that many Africans
did not care so much about their health unless they got sick, and pre-
vention was not in their interest (which goes well with the fact that
bednet projects based on purchasing of nets go well if there is a con-
comitant nuisance problem, and bad if there is not). His point was not
to give up against malaria, but to start working with people's under-
standing of the disease and their motivations and priorities.
The bednet project in Bagamoyo, Tanzania is a nice project to learn
from in the aspect of developing local initiatives. Has anyone heard
about effect of projects after the project team left unless a local or-
ganisation was established ?
I am not convinced that capitalism or not has anything to do with it. I
think it has more to do with the merit system of our scientific soci-
ety, which sometimes leads to perverse effects.
Ole Skovmand
Orstom - LIN
911, Av Agropolis
B.P. 5045
F-34032 Montpellier Cedex 1
France
Tel: +33-4-6704-1924
Fax: +33-4-6754-2044
mailto:ole.skovmand@mpl.orstom.fr
--
Send mail for the `AFRO-NETS' conference to `afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.