Doing Something About It

Med Students Make Life-Saving Delivery By Bike
Two Saint Louis University Medical School students are fighting death from malaria one mosquito net at a time.
Andy Sherman and Jesse Matthews are determined to stop the spread of the disease, which they say is both preventable and deadly, by purchasing and delivering by bicycle mosquito nets to villages of West Africa.
The students are holding a benefit concert on Sunday, March 4 to raise money for NetLife, http://netlifeafrica.org/default.aspx, the grassroots non-profit agency they created to fight malaria.
This summer will be the second trip to West Africa for the third year medical school students. In 2005, Sherman and Matthews raised $5,500, enough to purchase 605 mosquito nets, which protected 1,800 people in seven small Senegal villages that were so remote trucks couldn't get to them. They delivered the nets by bicycle.
This summer they will return to Senegal for about 10 weeks and hope to increase the number of lives they touch by delivering 1,000 nets to 10 villages. As part of their project, they teach education sessions that prepare villagers to spread the word about how to prevent the malaria.
They're getting academic credit for their work though an international elective course offered by Saint Louis University's department of community and family medicine.
Mosquitoes that carry malaria are most active from dusk to dawn. That's why mosquito nets that are hung over beds are an effective and simple way of attacking the problem that is the leading cause of death in young African children.
Sherman became aware of the problem when he was in Africa with the Peace Corps before he started medical school. He saw people in West African villages had a particularly high rate of malaria because they were not protected by mosquito nets. Any allocation of mosquito nets went to those who live in large cities.
"I saw a lot of people suffering from malaria," he said. "Malaria is a preventable illness that exists on a massive scale."
Sherman saw children, many of whom had diarrhea 80 to 90 percent of the time, who would contract malaria with deadly consequences. "It was a very emotional experience."
Sherman returned to the United States, started medical school and with his friend and fellow med school student, Jesse Matthews, launched NetLife. The movement is picking up steam: a group of California students looking for a grassroots cause to support have donated $1,000, which will buy 200 nets. NetLife also has negotiated a deal with a London-based group to buy nets for less than it paid two years ago.