ZAMBIA / MALARIA

From treated bed-nets to new approaches in preventative medicine, doctors and researchers in Zambia are coming up with new ways to fight malaria in the country. WORLD BANK

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:20
• Production Date: 23 April 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: WORLD BANK
• Subject Topical: HEALTH SERVICES; DISEASE PREVENTION; DISEASE CONTROL; DISEASES
• Geographic Subject: ZAMBIA
• MAMS Id: U100423g

Description

STORY: ZAMBIA / MALARIA
TRT: 1.20
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: APRIL 2010, KASANA, ZAMBIA

Shotlist

1. Med shot, Lady with kid
2. Close up, thumb
3. Med shot, X ray
4. Med shot, doctor
5. Med shot, people sitting around
6.SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Bambala, health commodity planner: “In the old system, we find the client goes to the health center, quite all right, intending to see the doctor or clinic or whatever is available, tends to them, a prescription is given is given to them, but what is a prescription if the drugs are not there?”
7. Wide shot, outside in village
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Monique Vledder, World Bank:
“In terms of treatments over the past couple of years, we’ve not seen, unfortunately, any improvement in the access, especially for children, to malaria drugs, so that is the reason why we started looking at the availability of drugs.”
9. Pan right, outside in village
10. Med shot, kid
11. Wide shot, outside meeting
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Grace Nanyinza, Director of health, Mungwi:
“I think we are just happy. We need that level of support and I look forward to it being scaled up to other districts.”
13. Med shot, microscope
14. Wide shot, children playing tug war in a village
15. Med shot, children
20. Med shot, child
21. Wide shot, family walking

Storyline

Malaria is a major public health challenge in Zambia, one of the leading causes of child mortality, the government has done a lot on prevention, including distribution of treated bed nets, but access to treatment remains a challenge.

Drugs to treat diseases like malaria are frequently unavailable in rural health centers.

Something had to be done to improve the supply chain and get lifesaving drugs to the right place on time.

SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Bambala, health commodity planner:
“In the old system, we find the client goes to the health center, quite all right, intending to see the doctor or clinic or whatever is available, tends to them, a prescription is given is given to them, but what is a prescription if the drugs are not there?”

SOUNDBITE (English) Monique Vledder, World Bank:
“In terms of treatments over the past couple of years, we’ve not seen, unfortunately, any improvement in the access, especially for children, to malaria drugs, so that is the reason why we started looking at the availability of drugs.”

Results are important for Zambia but the same principle - simple, smart interventions, implemented by partners working together, could make a real difference to drug supply chains across Africa.

SOUNDBITE (English) Grace Nanyinza, Director of health, Mungwi:
“I think we are just happy. We need that level of support and I look forward to it being scaled up to other districts.”

If the pilot is scaled up and the supply chains are strengthened, an estimated 27,000 children could be saved from malaria related deaths in Zambia by 2015, reducing the country’s child mortality from malaria by 37 percent.