Thailand RPCV Katherine McNally, a family practice specialist with Peace Corps experience, and Witt, an infectious disease expert, were working in cooperation with the Mentor Initiative, a London-based program that teaches modern ways of malaria prevention



Thailand RPCV Katherine McNally, a family practice specialist with Peace Corps experience, and Witt, an infectious disease expert, were working in cooperation with the Mentor Initiative, a London-based program that teaches modern ways of malaria prevention

Doctors battle malaria in Asia

By Jason Walsh, IJ reporter

As thousands of Southeast Asians struggle to put their lives back together after December's devastating tsunami, a pair of San Rafael-based physicians recently returned from battling the region's next big wave: malaria-spreading mosquitoes.

As part of a relief effort intended to equip local communities with malaria prevention programs, Kaiser Permanente doctors Katherine McNally and David Witt spent the past month in Banda Aceh, a city the size of Oakland on the north coast of Sumatra that reported more than 100,000 tsunami deaths.

The two taught survivors how to combat the hoards of mosquitoes that thrive in the stagnant waters that inevitably take root after such an aquatic disaster.

"There's a lot of malaria in Indonesia already," McNally said. "This kind of devastation could turn the disease into an epidemic if the proper measures aren't taken."

McNally, a family practice specialist with Peace Corps experience, and Witt, an infectious disease expert, were working in cooperation with the Mentor Initiative, a London-based program that teaches modern ways of malaria prevention.

Witt and McNally were charged with introducing new malaria medications to health providers and walking them through the administration and testing protocols.

According to Witt, Indonesia's malaria prevention already was years behind the times when the tsunami hit, as local strains of the disease had built up a strong resistance to the standard over-the-counter medications commonly used to combat the affliction.

In addition to introducing new preventive methods, the doctors helped coordinate insecticide spraying efforts aimed at housing walls, where mosquitoes tend to rest while digesting their latest bite.

"Of course, we could only spray half the city, because the other half was destroyed," McNally said.

While Witt was impressed by the amount of medical relief he saw in the region, he said he was surprised at how little of it was targeted for prevention.

"In a disaster situation doctors can be sewing up everybody they can, but if 50,000 malaria cases break out, all the physicians in the world can't get there in time to take care of it."

So far, Witt is relatively confident the program was a success, but said it's too early to tell.

"The peak malaria season in Indonesia is right now," Witt said. "But so far we've been pretty successful."

McNally said that a certain amount of outbreaks are inevitable, but the key "is to get to those outbreaks quickly and confine them."

While it was an experience she'll never forget, McNally admits she's glad to be home, as the "piles of debris and the stench of death was so overwhelming."

"It makes you really think about your purpose in life," McNally said. "It was a horrible tragedy, but it brought a lot of people together. And maybe that counts for something."

Contact Jason Walsh via e-mail at jwalsh@marinij.com.

When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state.

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March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.

Coates Redmon, Peace Corps Chronicler Coates Redmon, a staffer in Sargent Shriver's Peace Corps, died February 22 in Washington, DC. Her book "Come as You Are" is considered to be one of the finest (and most entertaining) recountings of the birth of the Peace Corps and how it was literally thrown together in a matter of weeks. If you want to know what it felt like to be young and idealistic in the 1960's, get an out-of-print copy. We honor her memory.

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February 26, 2005: This Week's Top Stories Folk-Singer Steve Schuch releases "Trees of Life" 26 Feb Christopher Bartlett maintains Marine Protected Area 25 Feb Joseph Frey uses amputation experience to help others 25 Feb James McCann concerned by maize in Ethiopia 25 Feb Sen. Obama says PC can help improve diplomacy 24 Feb PCVs help remove batteries in Belize 24 Feb Jimmy Carter praises mother's PC service 24 Feb Craig D. Wandke's lunar passion began in Honduras 23 Feb Char Andrews discusses her experience with cancer 23 Feb Beverly Seckinger tells stories through film 23 Feb J. Tyler Dickovick: As Togo goes, so may go Africa 23 Feb Andres Hernandez searches for PCV for 40 years 23 Feb Bulgaria is now like second home to Aaron Wills 22 Feb Bernadette Roberts to serve as diplomat in Albania 22 Feb USA Freedom Corps downgraded at White House 22 Feb Tom Skeldon seeks to control pit bull trade 21 Feb Gabriela Lena Frank writes music on Dad's PCV service 21 Feb

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Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.

Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments.

WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service.

Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress.

RPCVs mobilize support for Countries of Service RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey.

Read the stories and leave your comments.