Church confronts killer diseases in Angola

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

LUANDA, Angola (UMNS) - Sometimes malaria can kill a child before anyone even knows the child has been infected.

The Rev. Domingos Kafuanda says the recent death of an 8-year-old girl in his congregation was a grim reminder of how deadly malaria can be.

The child was singing in the children's choir on Sunday. "She was happy and playing," he says. "We got word she died the next day of malaria."

People sometimes ignore a headache and fever that may be the first symptoms of being infected, he says.

"Malaria can be in your body for a long time. Children can have fever one day and be feeling well the next; that is why it is so important to be tested," he says. "Her death really moved the church and reminded us we need to be vigilant about prevention and testing."

The complications are that not every mosquito carries malaria, and sometimes it is just impossible to avoid getting bitten.

Kafuanda, a United Methodist district superintendent for the Angola West Annual (regional) Conference, was bedridden with a high fever from malaria just two days before he spoke to United Methodist News Service about the killer that claims so many lives in this southwest African country.

He says he sleeps under a mosquito net and is well aware of the danger, "but sometimes you have to get out from under the net, and sometimes mosquitoes get inside."

Breeding grounds
Neighborhoods that lack potable water, adequate sewage systems and are overcrowded create the perfect breeding grounds for misery.

Dr. Pedro Francisco Chagas and Dr. Laurinda Quipungo sat down with a United Methodist delegation from the Board of Global Ministries and United Methodist Communications to talk about the problems they face every day in another part of the country at the Malanje Provincial Hospital.

"We have a population of 1.2 million in 14 municipalities," Chagas says. "It is a dream of mine to have one doctor for every 10,000 people." Right now that dream is far from coming true, he says.

Setting priorities is hard because the problems are so many, he says. The top diseases the doctors face are malaria, respiratory problems, gastric problems, AIDS/HIV and sleeping sickness. The greatest threat is to children under 5 and pregnant women.

"If a child has a fever, the first thing we must assume is malaria," says Quipungo, a pediatric doctor who is also the wife of Bishop Jose Quipango, United Methodist leader of the East Angola Annual (regional) Conference.

Along with fever and headaches, other symptoms are coughing and convulsions, sometimes followed by a coma. Children often become anemic, which weakens their ability to fight off the disease. Cerebral malaria attacks the brain, and the person never fully recovers, Quipungo says.
"Sometimes parents see the hospital as the last alternative, and it is too late when they bring in their children."

No protection
Jose Vieira Dias Van-Dunem, the vice minister of health for Angola, says 30 years of war have left the country without much protection from deadly diseases.

"Resources are not elastic," he says. "Many resources went to the war and were not used for health or potable water. In the last four years, that is becoming the past."

Angola won its 16-war of liberation from Portugal in 1975 but was thrust into a long civil war that lasted from 1976 to 2001. Thousands died, infrastructures were destroyed across the country, and more than 2 million people were displaced.

The government's top priorities are promoting education, health and national unity, and fighting poverty, Van-Dunem says. The church has a major role to play.

Angola had the deadliest outbreak of Marburg disease ever recorded in 2005. When the fatal disease, associated with fever and bleeding, swept through the country last year, Van-Dunem says he went to see the African religious leaders. He told them to tell people to stop the African tradition of kissing and touching the dead body because the disease was spreading as a result.

The word got out and the disease was stopped.

Churches can help with education, he says.

In seven of the 18 northern provinces, sleeping sickness is a major problem. The disease is spread by the bite of a tsetse fly, and 40,000 people die every year in regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. Van-Dunem says the fly is attracted to black or dark blue cloth so the government has made traps of dark cloth to catch the flies.

"People are stealing the traps to make clothing for their children," he says. "Then the children become the traps for the flies.

"We as Africans listen to our elders," he says. "Our relationship with churches is very important, but we have to be greedy, we want more."

How to help
The United Methodist Church is responding in many ways to the killer diseases. People interested in getting involved can help provide health care, mosquito nets and clean water through the Advance for Christ and His Church, a church giving program. Donations can be sent to UMCOR Advance #982009, Malaria Control, and other vital Advance ministries in four ways:
Online. Go to http://gbgm-umc.org/give/advance.

Local church. Checks should be made payable to the local church. Write the name of the ministry and the Advance code number on the check.

Mail. Checks can be made payable to "Advance GCFA" and sent to: Advance GCFA, P.O. Box 9068, GPO, New York, NY 10087-9068. Write the project name and its Advance code number.
Telephone. Call (888) 252-6174 to make a credit-card donation.

Other Advance ministries in Angola, along with their project numbers, include Agriculture and Animal Restocking Project, #15082T; Bishop Emilio de Carvalho Theological School, #14383M; Evangelization, #15061A; Help Me Fishing, #14384O; Illiteracy Program, #15081A; Library Construction and Books for Children, #14974N; and Medical Center, #15010N.

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer.