Suspected Malaria Claims Life of Black Traveler
By Markette Smith, BET.com Staff Writer
Posted Aug. 8, 2005 -- The tragic death of a young journalist on Sunday highlights the importance of getting the proper vaccines and taking serious precautions when traveling to developing countries.
Akilah Amapindi, 23, of Staten Island, N.Y., fell victim to malaria, a mosquito-borne illness, while on a seven-month journalism internship in Namibia, in southern Africa. Friends say that the 2004 graduate of Kenyon College, in Ohio, described how she slept under nets but would still wake up bitten after mosquitoes penetrated the feeble barrier.
Just before traveling to the National Association of Black Journalists conference this past weekend, Amapindi told friends that she didn’t feel well, but she later gathered the strength to board a plane and go to the event. One day later, she was rushed to an Atlanta hospital where she later died from a suspected malaria infection.
It is not known if Amapindi had all of the recommended vaccinations for Americans who travel to developing countries in Africa, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone traveling to the region ask their doctors for an anti-malarial drug prescription and do everything they can to protect themselves against mosquito bites.
“One of the first steps is seeing their physician four to six weeks before traveling,” says Paul Arguin, MD, an epidemiologist for the CDC in Atlanta. He says travelers should also be prepared to sleep with an insecticide-treated bed net, wear an insect repellent that contains up to 50 percent DEET (a common chemical used in repellents) and wear long-sleeved clothing to avoid mosquito bites in developing nations where malaria has a high prevalence. “One of the biggest issues,” says Dr. Arguin, “is getting that message out to travelers.”
Rebecca Cathcart, 24, has traveled extensively throughout Africa, having lived in the West African nation of Benin for a year in 2003 and 2004, the Democratic Republic of the Congo for two months before that and Madagascar for four months as an intern for USAID funded projects.
“I don’t think people in the Western Hemisphere realize how vulnerable they are to tropical climates. You want to experience the local culture, but you have to consider your health, too,” says Cathcart, who currently works on a Washington, D.C.-based African development initiative for a non-governmental organization.
“I got sick, but I’m educated [on the risks of malaria] now,” she says. Although doctors never confirmed it, Cathcart believes the flu-like symptoms that she suffered from while in Africa were linked to malaria. She says she was given antibiotics and got better.
Common signs of malaria, caused by a parasite carried by mosquitoes, are symptoms of the flu, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and the yellowing of the eyes and skin. Should any of these signs occur, even up to a year after traveling to a high-risk malaria region, the CDC recommends going to a doctor immediately for a blood test – something that Cathcart did, even after taking all of the proper precautions.
“I wore repellent all the time, but yeah, I got bit a lot, mainly at night,” she explains. “I slept with a mosquito net, but you have to tuck it under your mattress and treat the net with permethrin [insect repellent]. You just have to be really, really disciplined about it.”
Incidence of malaria occurs in an estimated 300-500 million individuals worldwide each year with fatalities occurring in about 1 million of the cases, according to the World Health Organization. “It’s one of the No. 1 killers worldwide and it’s a disease that should be taken very seriously,” says Dr. Arguin.
In cases like that of Amapindi, the most common reports of malaria in the United States come from American travelers and immigrants who have visited or lived in high-risk areas.
For the government’s health recommendations and requirements for people traveling anywhere outside of the country, look into:
* The CDC’s toll free information line on traveler’s health: 877-FYI-TRIP
* The CDC’s traveler’s health Web site at:
www.cdc.gov/travel
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Monday, August 15th 2005 at 11:00AM
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