蚊帳, 中藥, 瘧疾

(1)
這星期WHO的研究員report, 蚊帳和新藥令瘧疾在非洲的死亡率大幅降低. "We saw a very drastic impact," WHO的瘧疾專員Dr. Arata Kochi, "If this is done everywhere, we can reduce the disease burden 80 to 85 percent in most African countries within five years."

這份report算是是多年來最大的希望.

Global Fund委託WHO做這次研究. 對象是在4個國家的一些programs, 發放蚊帳和新藥, 包括artemisinin, 與每間公共診所. Artemisinin是一種由苦艾(wormwood)製出來的中藥. samples比較小, 而這次是第一次國家比較的report.

1. In Ethiopia, deaths of children from malaria dropped more than 50 percent. Ethiopia, much larger, took almost two years to hand out 20 million nets
2. Rwanda, a small country that handed out three million nets in two months in 2006, had 66 percent fewer child malaria deaths in 2007 than in 2005
3. Zambia, Dr. Kochi said, had only about a 33 percent drop in overall deaths because nets ran short and many districts ran out of medicine. But those areas without such problems had 50 to 60 percent reductions, he said.
4. Ghana was a bit of a mystery, according to the report. It got little money from the Global Fund, Dr. Kochi said, and so bought few nets and had to charge patients for drugs. Malaria deaths nonetheless fell 34 percent, but deaths among children for other reasons dropped 42 percent.
   

(2)
Report是在12月完成的. 收集data長期是一大難題, 尤其是非洲, 每個人一發燒就會假設是瘧疾. 學校的保健記錄也少有送去首都. 這份report只包括留院的兒童, 診斷也是肯定的.

一年一百萬兒童死亡, 這最常引用的data, 也不過是educated guess.

(3)
Where is the research taking?


檢視較大的地圖