Rainy season impedes healthcare access
The malaria peak season coincides with the cyclone and rainy season, from October to May. During this time, it becomes extremely difficult for people to access health centres, leading people to only seek medical care when their health has deteriorated to a critical condition. This also puts the lives of malnourished children at even greater risk.
“When the rain is heavy, providing care for children becomes difficult. The roads become muddy, flooded, and unusable,” says Dr Nantenaina, a medical doctor at the Intensive Therapeutic Feeding Centre (ITFC) run by MSF. “It is a struggle for both health workers and patients to move around, making it hard for patients to access to health centres or for us to send them back home.”
In hard-to-reach areas like Ikongo, the distance between households and healthcare facilities is significant. Soanary, the mother of a 4-year-old boy suffering from malnutrition and malaria, describes her journey.
“After seeing my son’s condition deteriorate, I decided to go to the nearest health centre,” says Soanary. “To get here, I had to walk for four hours and cross through water, carrying my son on my back.”
Fonte original msf.org
