Dr Mudji from Vanga Hospital is fronting MAF’s malaria campaign (credit: Candice Lassey)

MAF’s Malaria Campaign has raised over £60,000 to fight the disease in remote Vanga, western DRC. Supporters have paid for over 3,000 malaria kits, plus MAF flights to deliver them. The kits – comprising of malaria tests and drugs – are saving children’s lives. Dr Mudji from Vanga Evangelical Hospital says, ‘Thank you!’

Thanks to MAF’s Malaria Campaign, there have been no malaria deaths at Vanga Evangelical Hospital since mid-July according to Dr Junior Mudji – the hospital’s head of research and director of education.

Thanks to MAF, 3,000+ malaria kits have been delivered to Vanga Hospital (credit: MAF US)

Over £60,000 in donations have paid for more than 3,000 malaria kits, plus the MAF flights which delivered them. The basic kits – comprising of malaria tests, anti-malarial drugs and paracetamol – were flown in from the DRC’s capital Kinshasa in June and August.

Each kit contains anti-malarial drugs as well as a test and paracetamol (credit: MAF US)

One kit saves the life of one child suffering from malaria. MAF partner, Dr Mudji, is delighted with the results:

‘Everybody from the community in Vanga is grateful. Thank you to everyone who gave donations for the malaria treatment. It was a successful campaign.

‘It quickly gave us what we needed at Vanga Evangelical Hospital. Our head nurse was sad, but now she’s smiling a lot. She’s happy to have everything we need to treat our children.’

Dr Mudji from Vanga Evangelical Hospital & MAF frequent flyer

The DRC has the 2^nd highest no of malaria cases in the world

After Nigeria, the DRC has the second highest number of malaria cases in the world. In 2021, nearly 80,000 people across the DRC died from this preventable and treatable disease. Malaria is also the leading cause of death for under-fives in the DRC (source: World Health Organisation).

80% of malaria cases at the hospital are children under the age of 5 (credit: MAF US)

Vanga Evangelical Hospital – set in isolated Vanga Town in Kwilu Province, western DRC – receives around 60 malaria patients every month. 80% of cases are children under the age of five. Before MAF’s campaign, two or three children would die every month from the disease, says Dr Mudji:

‘Our biggest problem is malaria – it’s the main cause of hospitalisation and morbidity. Children with severe malaria are comatose who can’t eat or talk. Their mothers are desperate. I saw this almost every day – two or three children in a coma, but we didn’t have the right treatment. The problem is that they arrive late to hospital. They start off with uncomplicated malaria, but when they don’t get treated, it develops into severe malaria. Sometimes they take treatment that isn’t recommended. The situation becomes worse and they die.

‘Malaria is a well-known disease, which we know how to prevent. With the right treatment, some countries have really reduced malaria, but in the DRC, it’s a very big country and our challenges are huge. Vanga has a population of nearly 400,000, but in the remote regions, you don’t have medicine or malaria tests. It’s hard to reach the remote regions.

‘Since June, apart from what MAF has provided, we haven’t had the right treatment or any malaria tests in Vanga. Since receiving the treatment sent by MAF, the quality of our care has really improved.’

Pre-campaign, there were no malaria drugs or tests in their stockroom (credit: MAF US)

Without an NHS system like we have in the UK, the people of DRC have to pay for their healthcare. Dr Mudji explains:

‘In the DRC you have to pay for your care and treatment out of your own pocket, but most of our population can’t afford it. Without MAF, there would be a financial burden on the family to buy malaria treatment, which is expensive. If no tests or drugs are at the hospital, it would cost up to £50 altogether from the drugstore (if available). That’s the cost of treating someone with malaria.

‘Now when a child has a fever, we have the treatment. We just do a malaria test and if it’s positive, we provide the treatment. Now, they pay nothing – it’s no cost for the community and no cost for the hospital. I have everything I need to treat malaria.’

Vanga is an isolated Town in Kwilu Province, western DRC (credit: MAF US)

MAF is the only air operator to fly to Vanga Evangelical Hospital (credit: MAF US)

MAF is the only way

Vanga is nearly 350 miles from Kinshasa. MAF is the only air operator to fly from the capital to Vanga. MAF’s twice- weekly shuttle service flies in staff, patients and supplies (if available).

Vehicles can get stuck in the mud on the way to the hospital (MAF: John Gorenflo)

Without MAF’s 90-minute flight, it would take two days from Kinshasa to reach Vanga by road. Life without MAF would be unimaginable says Dr Mudji:

‘Some people take six hours to get to hospital because their car is stuck in the mud. This is common. Can you imagine a car bringing medicine and everything we need to the hospital? It’s not easy.

‘MAF flies to the very remote places where no one else can go. If MAF was absent, I don’t know what would happen. It would be difficult.’

Vanga’s isolation compounds the challenges of recruiting and retaining staff, says Dr Mudji:

‘The majority of doctors in the Congo want to stay in a city – they don’t want to work in this very remote place. Our hospital is a teaching hospital where we train nurses and doctors who are dedicated to working in this remote region. Some people have accepted working in villages like myself.’

Dr Mudji’s team is committed to working in such an isolated area (credit: Candice Lassey)

Vanga Evangelical Hospital has 14 doctors and 100 nurses, but resources are limited, sighs Dr Mudji:

‘We have nearly 500 beds, but many of them aren’t proper beds. It’s really difficult for us to work in this culture.’

Resources are few– there aren’t enough proper patient beds (credit: MAF US)

Another challenge is that people from outside the region have heard about the malaria treatment in Vanga and are turning up at the hospital to access it, which is putting more strain on already limited resources. Dr Mudji explains:

‘Malaria cases are increasing at the hospital because people have heard that if they go to Vanga, they know that we have the right treatment. Even though they don’t have any money, they know that we will treat them for free.’

Cases are increasing due to more people turning up from further away (credit: MAF US)

Finding a sustainable solution

Whilst MAF malaria kits have provided short-term relief for the people of Vanga, a more sustainable solution has to be found admits Dr Mudji:

‘To really reduce malaria deaths, work must be done within the community. We should have a community health worker (CHW) in every village, so that if a child presents with fever, the first thing the CHW does is to test for malaria. If they’re positive, the CHW gives them treatment, so it won’t develop into severe malaria. Early diagnosis is key.’

Better bed nets and advice on how to use them is also important continues Dr Mudji:

‘The government needs to provide better bed nets because research has shown that mosquitos are resistant to the old ones. Beds in the village aren’t always compatible with bed nets either. People might put them up with stickers instead of something more secure and so after a month, they’re destroyed. It’s challenging.

‘We pray that we find a sustainable solution. We’ve already started testing the malaria vaccine in central Congo, so we hope that it makes an impact. We hope that by using these tools of prevention and treatment, they can help us to sustainably reduce the burden of malaria in our country. Lets’ see what God will provide in the future.’

Dr Mudji is praying for a sustainable solution for future generations (credit: MAF US)

The DRC is currently in stage one of its malaria vaccination rollout including Kwilu Province facilitated by UNICEF, WHO, Gavi Vaccine Alliance, PATH, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Stage two will begin in October and stage three, December.