Malaria prevention and treatment

Malaria remains one of the world's biggest killers - and yet it is preventible and can readily be treated. In the light of the global attention paid to HIV/AIDS, malaria is nevertheless often ignored in donor programmes and international priorities.
ICTs can do much to help share effective information about how to avoid getting malaria and what to do if you think you are infected. This page builds on work undertaken by the national malaria control programmes in Kenya and Tanzania, facilitated by Alasdair Unwin who now works in association with the ICT4D Collective.

The film A Mother's Story was made by the Mediae Trust in Kenya in 2000 for the National Malaria Control Programme, so that it could be shown at the annual Roll Back Malaria Global Partners Meeting held that year in Geneva. Although much has changed in the few years since the film was made, many of the underlying systemic problems remain. The film higlights the reasons for changes in anti-malarial drug policy and should focus the efforts of all those who have an interest in reducing the burden of malaria in Africa. It can also be used as an effective training tool for health workers.

In Tanzania, the Malaria Control Programme of the Ministry of Health has also produced a set of illustrated magazines in Kiswahili designed to provide readily accessible information about the prevention and treatment of malaria. These are available on-line at Atticmedia's site at http://www.atticmedia.com/imfundo, and provide another useful resource in the campaign to reduce the effects of malaria across Africa

A Mother's Story - videos

1. Early and effective case management (67.8 MB)

2. Access to quality medicines and suppliers (67.9 MB)

3. Insecticide Treated mosquito Nets (43.6 MB)

4. Referral of malaria cases (224.2 MB

) 5. Intermittent Preventive Treatment (42.5 MB)

6. Training and supervision (104.4 MB)

About the Collective in your own language:

For learning and training

A Mother's Story was initially made as an entire film, but it has been broken up here into six learning sections, each of which focuses on one particular aspect of malaria prevention. After each section take the opportunity to discuss the issues raised:
* What might you have done differently in these circumstances?
* How do the issues differ from those with which you are familiar?
* How have things changed since the film was made in 2000?

Acknowledgements

The development and dissemination of these digital resources owes much to the dedicated efforts of a number of individuals and organisations working in partnership. Following a request from DFID Tanzania, the Imfundo team in DFID brought together a range of partners to turn existing video and paper resources into a CD ROM. Alasdair Unwin had initiated the suggestion that Imfundo’s partners might be able to help the Tanzanian Government, had previously worked with the Mediae Trust on the making of A Mother’s Story for the Kenyan National Malaria Control Programme. David Campbell and Andrew Gosling of Mediae, then gave freely of their time to work with Alasdair to reversion this film into the six short learning videos that can be accessed above. Matt Shard of Automatic Television digitised this material at no cost for inclusion on the CD. Atticmedia, working with Imfundo, turned the Shinda Malaria magazines into Flash animations, and they also arranged for the Tanzanian Ministry of Health's training materials to be made accessible digitally through an innovative browser on the CD. Full acknowledgements for these other activities are specified on Atticmedia's site and the CD itself which is available from Imfundo (DFID), 1 Palace Street, London, SW1E 5HE, UK.