This article was contributed by Maurine Murenga in support of Malaria No More UK.
Earlier this year I spoke at the UK’s Conservative Party Conference. I was invited because my family and I are living proof that investing in aid and global development do work. I came to put a face to the reports and statistics from The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Recently we heard the amazing news that the Global Fund has already helped to save 17 million lives – I went to Manchester to urge the UK government to continue their support for this incredibly effective organisation.
I first learnt about the Global Fund at a time in my life when my son and I had no hope to live. I had been diagnosed with HIV during pregnancy and due to high viral load and lack of access to treatment, I passed the virus to my son, Earl Fortune.
12 years ago being diagnosed with HIV in my country of Kenya was a 'death sentence'. This is because access to treatment was impossible. The health systems were also too weak to handle the many patients that were taken to hospital with AIDS related ailments. I remember hospitals discharging the patients near death to go and die from home and give space to those that were still a little strong. Most of us were encouraged to learn 'home based care' so that we could take care of our peers and we offered palliative care to our dying friends.
My story with the Global Fund does not end with HIV. I have lost count of the times I have had treatment for malaria. I had malaria 3 times when I was expecting my younger son, Emmanuel, but on all occasions it was diagnosed early and cured. This is because I had information on the relationship between malaria and mother to child infection of HIV so I kept on looking out for the symptoms and seeking health services. During that period though a friend of mine who was also expectant died of malaria during her last trimester.
My village is in a swampy area at the shores of Lake Victoria. There are certain moments of the year when we would lose so many children to malaria. On a normal day you would hear screams and wails from a neighbouring home only to be told that a child had fever and headache and either died going to hospital or after only being given a traditional remedy – each one was a preventable death as a result of malaria.
The situation in my village has slightly improved now - with availability of insecticide treated nets, folks can prevent malaria. There is however still room to improve early diagnosis and treatment as our local dispensaries do not have laboratories or access to point of care diagnostics for malaria.
It was great to be able to share my experiences at the Conservative Party Conference. There was a lot of support from civil society organisations and it was heartening to hear positive responses from party leaders on the UK continuing its strong aid support.
Like my sons’ lives and mine, every life counts and therefore should be saved. We need to reach the unreached by ensuring universal health coverage. This can only happen if we give ambitiously to the Global Fund to scale up the good work it is doing in our countries. If we save lives today, we will end the epidemics tomorrow.