Rain streamed into the bright green valleys of Democratic Republic of Congo, coursing along the bumpy dirt roads, pooling into gullies and lakes. Each puddle, each wheel rut that filled with water, created a breeding spot for mosquitos that carry a deadly disease – malaria.
As the rainy season progressed, Doctors Without Borders staff heard stories of malaria ripping through camps for displaced people along the country’s eastern rim, a region roiled by decades of war. In the city of Kashuga in North Kivu, 2,000 people were flooding the health centers each week seeking treatment for the potentially fatal disease. Many of them were very ill by the time they sought help.
“Parents often have to work from early morning in the fields in order to feed their families. This means that when it comes to taking one of their sick children, or themselves, off to the clinic for tests and treatment, people regularly leave it until symptoms are severe. This can lead to complications and sometimes even fatalities,” wrote Emily Gilbert, a Doctors Without Borders project manager.
If people couldn’t reach their medical facilities, Gilbert and her team decided to bring the facilities closer to them. They set up two mobile clinics close in outlying villages, inside two schools that were closed for summer break. They assembled and trained a team of nurses, health educators, guards and pharmacists. Next, they set about converting the schools into temporary health clinics, hanging plastic sheeting to create walls, and stacking medications in an area that would serve as a pharmacy.
Outside, Gilbert hung the Doctors Without Borders flag on a frame fashioned from tree branches. “Hopefully when people see this flag they will know they are welcome in our clinics, no matter where they are from, their age, gender, religion or political affiliation,” Gilbert wrote in a blog post. “Our flags should be an indication that people arriving in the clinics will be triaged based on their symptoms only and that all care and treatment is free.”
Learn more about Doctors Without Borders work in some of the world’s riskiest and most conflict-ridden areas.
Some 3.2 billion people – more than half the world’s population – live in areas susceptible to malaria. The illness can begin like a common cold, then quickly become severe, causing seizures, anemia, breathing problems, pregnancy complications and, in the most severe cases, death. More than 400,000 people around the world die from malaria each year.
In Kashuga, malaria has been especially virulent over the past year. Thousands of people displaced by conflict live in shacks made of bamboo, mud and leaves in crowded camps. The dry season usually provides some respite from mosquitos; their numbers thin as their breeding grounds evaporate. But this year, the rain rarely stopped and neither did the mosquitos.
USA Today
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