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“What can I do to prevent malaria?” asks Bizunesh, lying on a thin mattress on the floor at an
Ethiopian Hospital with a quinine drip attached to her arm. Next to her lay one of her
daughters, a pink scarf wrapped around her head to keep the warmth in and minimize the
bounding headaches the malaria causes. “My husband has died. I have four children. What
can a wife and children do alone?” Her voice gets more agitated as tears well in her eyes and
she begins to cry. All her children are suffering from malaria during this current epidemic.
Mattresses line the corridors. Makeshift beds are made on the wooden benches and people
share whatever space they can find. The wards are all full. It is the rainy season, and already
hundreds of people have been diagnosed with the disease and been hospitalized.With
chloroquine drug resistance high, the large majority needs to be treated with quinine, and put
on drips, stretching already overburdened services and exhausted staff.
Bizunesh simply can not afford to be sick. Raising her four children alone she is dependent on
trading in small grocery items and growing food on her small plot of land. Lying in hospital, she
hopes to be able to go home in a day or two, but she is worried how she will manage while all
the children are still weak from the disease. Her small savings have vanished and she no longer
knows how she will continue to feed them, let alone keep them healthy. 18
Vitamin Deficiencies
• 2 million children may die unnecessarily each year because they lack vitamin A, Zinc,
or other nutrients.
• 19 million infants are born with impaired mental capacity every year due to
iodine deficiency.
• 100,000 babies are born each year with preventable physical defects
• Iron deficiency undermines the health and energy of 40 percent of women in the developing
world. Severe anemia kills more than 60,000 women each year, especially during childbirth.
• Vitamin and mineral deficiencies account for 10 percent of the global health burden.
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