Via allAfrica.com, a report from Radio Netherlands Worldwide: Congo-Kinshasa: DRC - Malaria Claiming Lives in North Kivu. Excerpt:
Goma — An epidemic of malaria has again hit the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Women and children remain the most affected by the disease, despite an ongoing distribution campaign for insecticide-treated mosquito nets.
Munigi is a small village on the outskirts of North Kivu province's capital Goma where, as in other parts of the Nyiragongo region, populations are being ravaged by malaria. Due to rampant poverty, families are being forced to make difficult choices.
"We are a family of eleven and we only received one mosquito net. I don't know what to do," says Dafroz Chizanye, a desperate mother. "I will set it up in my room since we sleep with the baby, and leave the other children exposed. In order for the children to sleep under the mosquito net, we would have to put the young boys and girls into the same bed and that's not possible. There is nothing I can do," she laments.
Shortcomings
During the distribution campaign, which launched on 25 April, many families with over ten members were given a single mosquito net. Others received no net at all.
"I was purely and simply forgotten during the census and so I didn't get the token [to exchange for a mosquito net]. What am I going to do against the large numbers of mosquitoes in this neighbourhood?" wonders a resident at the Munigi healthcare centre, where the mosquito nets are handed out.
According to the World Malaria Report 2011 published by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Africa has the highest incidence of malaria in the world. Children under age five comprise 86 percent of the cases. The DRC is among countries with the highest prevalence of malaria. The child mortality rate for malaria is over 45 percent.
