Training Mothers to Administer Anti-Malarial Drugs Cuts Death Rate
Too many children in Africa die from malaria, and so far nobody’s come up with much a solution. A recent study published in the Lancet, however, suggests that the answer might be as simple as giving mothers training on administering anti-malarial drugs to their young children.
In a study in Ethiopia, giving mothers chloroquine and showing them how to use it, reduced the rate of childhood death rates from 50 per 1,000 to 30 per 1,000 compared to a control group. In the group that was given chloroquine and training, only 19% of childhood deaths were attributable to malaria, whereas in a control group 57% of childhood deaths were attributable to malaria.
The researchers warned that some communities might not be as able to help themselves, but this certainly seems like an avenue of treatment that should be greatly expanded as soon as possible. If poor women in Ethiopia can successfully administer chloroquine to their children and thereby increase their odds of surviving, many families around the world should be able to benefit from this sort of intervention.
Source:
Mothers ‘could slash malaria deaths.’ The BBC, August 10, 2000.
The Training Mothers to Administer Anti-Malarial Drugs Cuts Death Rate by Brian Carnell, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Tags: Malaria