Peace Diaries Workspace

II. GHANA
	Chapter 2: TEMA, GHANA First Baptist School Teacher: Charles Opoku

Elizabeth M. and Akuah P.
Hi, everybody! I am a girl of fourteen years of age and I come from the eastern part of Ghana. I like outdoor games. I love friends all over the world. Anyway, I am supposed to be telling you how I got sick, how it affected my life and how I was cured.

On the 7th January 2002, at about 8:30 am, I started feeling cold and I had a severe headache. I was shivering, so I was taken to the hospital. I was diagnosed with malaria. I was not surprised because malaria is a common disease in tropical Africa. It is caused in man by a parasite which is normally carried and injected into our bodies by mosquitoes.

Not all mosquitoes carry the malaria parasite: the one that usually carries the parasite is known as the ‘anopheles mosquito’. It carries the malaria parasite in its body, but it is not itself attacked by malaria. The malaria parasite uses the body of the anopheles mosquitoes as a place to develop and wait until it is injected through a mosquito bite into the human blood stream.

The anopheles mosquito can be distinguished from all other mosquitoes by the angle at which it rests its body when it perches on a wall, for example. It rests at an angle of about 45 (forty five) degrees. It usually uses its sharp proboscis to pierce the skin of its victim from clothing before it begins to suck blood.

The malaria parasite is injected into the victim’s blood stream together with anti-clot saliva. The parasite then wriggles its way through the blood stream of the victim, entering veins and then growing and multiplying. When a parasite enters a person, it completes part of its developmental cycle. The cycle continues if the person develops malaria and another anopheles mosquito bites the sick person and sucks their blood. If the malaria is malignant the onset of an attack is usually nine to fifteen days after the mosquito bite.

Malaria attacks are normally accompanied by fever, chills, profuse perspiration and occasional vomiting. This means that if malaria attacks, the victim develops a high body temperature while shivering with cold. The person sweats a lot.

The victim may also develop a splitting headache and weakened joints. There is also a loss of appetite and the victim’s eyes turn reddish-yellow in color. If malaria is left untreated it can be fatal and result in the death of the victim. Untreated malaria can also lead to chronic malaria. Chronic malaria becomes almost impossible to treat.

On the other hand, treatment of malaria during the early stages often leads to complete recovery. There are several drugs that are used in the treatment of malaria. Formerly, quinine was the only drug available for treatment. Now, however, quinine is no longer used because of its numerous bad side-effects.

Some of the most frequently prescribed drugs for the treatment of malaria include Chloroquine, Fancidar, Camoquine and Nivaqunie. Chloroquine has become one of the most reliable anti-malaria drugs for use in Ghana. However, because of its abuse and misuse, it has become ineffective on some people. These people have developed a strain of the malaria parasite that is Chloroquine-resistant.

When that happens, an anti-histamine is given to neutralize the reaction or make it ineffective. Because of this, it is always best for a doctor to prescribe the type of drug best suited to fight a particular species of malaria parasite. The doctor will also determine the dosage for a patient. Dosages depends very much on the age and body weight of the patient as well as the patient’s tolerance to the drug.

The drug is administered in several ways. A patient may be given the drug to swallow as a tablet or syrup. This is known as oral administration of drug. There is also the use of injection directly into the blood stream of the patient. Malaria can be prevented in several ways. One is to take anti-malaria drugs at regular intervals. This is known as the prophylactic use of drugs. It is taken not as a cure, but to prevent the disease. Care, however, must be taken in this prophylactic use of anti-malaria drugs as lapses interrupt their protective effect. If an attack of malaria occurs while the drug is administered prophetically, the patient must tell the doctor the type of prophylactic that has been taken.

Another method of preventing malaria is to make sure that pools, ponds, wells, drainage systems and empty cans do not provide hatcheries for the mosquitoes to lay their eggs. Still-standing water provides a good environment for the eggs to hatch in. It is also advisable to keep mosquitoes out of your rooms by using insect sprays and covering windows and doors with insect-proof nets.

There are also several mosquito repellents that can be rubbed or sprayed on the body to keep mosquitoes away. Statistics prove that about 2 million people in Africa have been killed due to Malaria. I was lucky: mine was detected early and I was cured.

Michael A.
My name is Michael. I am 13 years old and I go to Creator school in the city of Tema, in Ghana. My hobbies include reading storybooks and playing football. The food I like best is ‘fufu’, which is boiled plantain and cassava. Well, I am supposed tell to you about when I became ill, what kind of sickness it was, how it affected me and how I got treated.

On the 31st of December in 2000, or New Year’s Eve, I had a stomach ache. Within 30 minutes, I had diarrhea. I did not actually know what was wrong but I was frequenting the toilet so often that my mother said it could be cholera. When one has Cholera you have a runny tummy and you throw up food as well. Within minutes I was very weak. My mother mixed salt and water and made a solution for me to drink. I gulped down a full glass of it.

Ten minutes after, the vomiting stopped. I asked to sleep for a while because my system had lost a huge amount of water. Two hours later, my mother mashed ‘ken key’ (ken key is our local food. prepared with corn) for me. I was regaining energy then. She went out and brought papaw and citrus leaves and put it on a fire, for about 20 minutes, after she had washed the leaves.

That was my medicine for the whole week. I drank one glass in the morning and one in the afternoon. Two weeks later, I was back in school.

Naturally, my colleagues had already taken a commanding lead in class but with determination and hard work, I managed to get A’s in all my subjects. Ahh - That was quite an experience!