Abdullah Feroze, a UNM pre-medical student and ASUNM senator, is one of 10 finalists in the essay contest “World Briefing: Telling the Malaria Story,” which is sponsored by the nonprofit organization Malaria No More. Feroze contracted the parasitic disease on a visit to Ghana in 2008. If his essay receives the most votes on MalariaNoMore.org, he will travel to the Pan-African Malaria Conference in Kenya.
Daily Lobo: If you were able to travel to Kenya for the malaria conference, what would you do while you were there?
Abdullah Feroze: The Web site describes a number of seminars where health officials from all across Africa will be presenting more of the biomedical-research side, such as working in research labs to address the issue of Plasmodium falciparum. That’s one of the particular bacteria that cause malaria. There will also be public health officials such as those from Senegal, who are conducting broader studies and seeing what’s effective and what’s not. For instance, educating people about malaria at a young age may be able to prevent such diseases. There are also projects constantly going on. Donations for bed nets — simple $5
donations we can use to save children’s and families’ lives — just being able to mingle and find out about the success of some of these programs and how they can be approved. One of the main things is to have the student who wins the contest convey what they learned and what they saw in Kenya to the rest of the world, whether that be through writing, blogs, pictures or videos. I think that the primary goal of the whole contest is to raise awareness. I think 20,000 people have already voted and there are probably 20,000 more people who didn’t know about the toll malaria can have in the first place. That’s my primary goal and the goal of the other nine finalists — just to raise awareness about this terrible disease and hopefully learn something in the process about how our fight against malaria can be enhanced.
DL: What was it like to experience malaria firsthand, and what kinds of symptoms did you experience during that time?
AF: I actually had it lucky. I’m not sure if getting malaria is lucky, but both my parents are physicians, so they definitely helped me out in
getting the right kind of medication before I even left. Throughout my time in Ghana, I stuck to that regimen of taking one pill a day to prevent malaria and used mosquito repellent all the time. I still ended up contracting malaria towards the end of my stay, so that shows you just how dangerous it can be. You can take all the necessary precautions and still end up with a disease. I just remember the last few nights I was there — I’d spend the whole night shivering and started aching. … I’m not going to say that if I hadn’t contracted malaria, I wouldn’t care about malaria, but it definitely put a whole new spin on my perspective. I work in a research lab, so what I often do is try to put myself in the perspective of people suffering from these diseases. At the end of the day, until you actually have a disease, lose a loved one, or know a loved one affected by some disease, then it’s hard to understand how terrible of a toll such problems can have on personal and family lifestyles.
DL: What would you tell people who say, “Malaria doesn’t affect us here so I don’t really care about it”?
AF: I think we tend to hear that a whole lot more than anyone would like. That goes back to the well-being of other nations in this increasingly global society. One nation can definitely impact what’s going on in ours and other nations. For instance, the Western world has pumped in tens of trillions of dollars over the last 50 years in trying to solve health disparities, but if you take a look around the world right now, you still see families that don’t have access to $5 mosquito nets. You see children and mothers dying from the complications of childbirth. You see people who are going blind or dying just because they lack access to medications that cost pennies on the dollar. It’s our duty, where we are in this day and age, technology-wise. I guess it’s also a conscience thing. We can and we definitely do need to change this. It’s everyone’s responsibility to make these kinds of changes, and it’s terrible to think that a million children will be dying because they don’t have access to these drugs.
~Tricia Remark
To vote for Feroze’s essay, visit www.MalariaNoMore.org, keyword “Abdullah Feroze”
