Ignorance Is Not Always Bliss: Mollelian's Story

One of the most glaring examples of ignorance and the need for education, came to light while at a village where Artemisia, the plant used for Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACT) for malaria drugs, is being farmed. This is where I, and my colleague, Bob, a CBS news radio reporter, interviewed, Mollelian, a young woman living in the village.



We asked Mollelian about malaria to obtain a general sense about her knowledge. Women are the first line of defense so if the woman in the house is lost, then the children's health is in serious jeopardy.

She says that even now she is sick with a headache and a temperature. She says she has no money to buy nets and doesn't know where to get them. We ask her how she gets treatment. She says that she gets treatment at a clinic. But we find that she buys most of her drugs at a local ducha (neighborhood corner store) and it may just be aspirin. The translator explains to us that when people get prescriptions, most are written in English so many people in rural parts don't understand what the prescription is for. Mollelian can't read or write any language. In addition to Swahili, educated Tanzanians learn English at a young age.

We ask Mollelian if she had any kids. "Yes, 2," she tells the translator. We asked if she had any that died from malaria. She said no. After some time passed and more questioning it turns out she had two children die "at child birth." Louis comments that it is likely that the kids died from malaria. We have found during our travels that many people in the villages don't know that 'fever' is malaria and mistake symptoms of malaria for other things. Then we ask her if she knows how you get malaria. "You get it from close contact from people who are sick." For the record, malaria is only transmitted by mosquitoes, not human-to-human contact.

I thought about asking Mollelian about HIV, but I sensed from our conversation that she wouldn't know much - if anything - about that either. However, she did get one thing right, she knows what the Artemisia plants being grown in her backyard are for. Ironic that it is a cure that is right outside her door and one she may never be able to afford.



Related Topics: Spotlight on HIV/AIDS in Females, HIV and AIDS in the 21st Century

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