2008 Woodie Awards
RSSDoctor helps stop malaria by sale of nets
By Margaret Martin
Issue date: 10/16/07 Section: News
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Stone started the nonprofit organization called Soft Power Health to combat malaria after she went on a kayak trip to Uganda.
Soft Power Health sells mosquito nets to the people in Uganda to help protect citizens against the disease.
The nets, which are made of polyethylene, provide better air flow than previous nets. The organization also helps people learn how to use the nets.
Stone's interest in working with malaria began when she decided to determine the level of malaria education and prevention available throughout Uganda.
Stone conducted a survey of 50 huts in several Ugandan villages and determined that malaria treatment was the number one expense among the residents.
So far, Soft Power Health has sold about 20,000 nets. The cost of the nets are about $1.50, which Stone said is an amount everyone in the Ugandan villages can afford.
The nets, with the added insecticide, can be up to 90 percent effective in preventing contraction of malaria.
Soft Power Health also does follow-up visits to see if people are using the nets.
The organization found on average, about 74 percent of those with the nets continue to use them.
"Shockingly enough they did not realize how they got malaria," Stone said. "They didn't realize they got it from mosquitoes."
Stone said pregnant women and children less than five-years-old are most likely to die from malaria.
Stone said, in one case, she encouraged a family with a two day old baby to put up nets as soon as possible since infants have a high risk of contracting the disease.
According to a recent article in The New York Times on the deadly effects of malaria in Africa, large organizations such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF are taking part in the distribution of mosquito nets to villages in both Uganda and other areas in Africa.
Dr. Arata-Kochi, the new director of the World Health Organization, began an initiative to take the nets out of social marketing, where nets are sold in local stores at low, subsidized prices.
