T3 ONE HEALTH MALAWI Research Papers Environment

T3 ONE HEALTH MALAWI Research Papers Environment

Environment

2022

• TITLE - Jiko to Zipo - A 100% Local Cooking Innovation Rising to Malawi's Deforestation Challenge
• AUTHOR - Will Coley, Boyce Wenzulo 
• JOURNAL - NA
  
• ABSTRACT - Deforestation in Malawi is about 33,000 hectares per year (2019), mainly due to fuel use for cooking. United Purpose Malawi conducted a "Monitoring Study, Cooking Test & Focus Group Discussion" exercise to get an in-depth understanding of the user experience of the Zipo FAST Cookstove. The Zipo FAST Cookstove uses fuel made from factory/farm waste groundnut shells, that have been pelletised.
• CATEGORY - Miscellaneous
  

2020

• TITLE - The strengths and limitations of using hospital records to assess environmental health in Karonga, Malawi
• AUTHOR - Donald Brown
• JOURNAL - Environment & Urbanization
• ABSTRACT - This paper explains the methods that were used to study environmental health problems in Karonga, a rapidly growing secondary urban centre in Malawi. The study used existing information from hospital records and consulted local health officials and academics on how best to use it. The aim was to position the hospital as a disease surveillance site by using its records to generate disaggregated health data at the intra-urban scale. This paper identifies the strengths and limitations of using hospital data to inform joint urban planning and public health interventions. It also provides a summary of the key findings, including a discussion of the implications for enhancing urban health intelligence and urban policy formulation in Malawi and other rapidly urbanizing countries. This paper is intended to show researchers how existing information in low-resource settings can be used to generate needed health data for urban populations, with a particular interest in secondary centres.
• ISSUE - 1
• VOLUME - 32
• DOI - 10.1177/0956247819860068

2020

• TITLE - A Critical Review of the Status of Pesticide Exposure Management in Malawi
• AUTHOR - Ishmael Kosamu, Chikumbusko Kaonga, Wells Utembe
• JOURNAL - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• ABSTRACT - Pesticides pose a significant risk to humans and the environment. This paper analyzes the measures used to manage pesticides in Malawi. Malawi's regulatory authority of pesticides, the Pesticides Control Board (PCB), faces a number of challenges including lack of facilities for analyzing pesticides and inadequate personnel to conduct risk assessment of pesticides. The PCB needs to provide access to information and opportunities among the public to make contributions regarding requirements, processes and policies for assessing pesticide risk and efficacy. There is also a need to enhance the capacity of PCB to assess pesticide poisoning in workers, monitor pesticide residues in food and environmental contamination, as well as to control the illegal importation and sale of pesticides. Just like in other countries such as South Africa, India and Sri Lanka, Malawi urgently needs to implement measures that can restrict the importation, production, sale and use of very toxic pesticides. Malawi also needs to develop measures for the effective management of pesticide waste containers as well as obsolete pesticides, where potential solutions include reducing the purchase of (unneeded) pesticides, treatment of obsolete pesticides in high-temperature cement kilns, as well as requesting pesticide dealers to adopt life-cycle management of their products.
• ISSUE - 18
• VOLUME - 17
• DOI - 10.3390/ijerph17186727

2019

• TITLE - An Analysis of the Causes of Deforestation in Malawi: A Case of Mwazisi
• AUTHOR - Susan Ngwira, Teiji Watanabe
• JOURNAL - MDPI
• ABSTRACT - Deforestation is recognized as a major driver of the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. It also disturbs natural processes such as biogeochemical, hydrological, and ecological cycles. In Malawi, deforestation is estimated to be responsible for the loss of 33,000 hectares per year, and is mainly attributed to agriculture expansion, tobacco growing, and excessive use of biomass. However, little research has been conducted at either the local level or that of forests located on customary land. This research aimed to identify and analyze the underlying driving factors associated with the proximate factors of agriculture expansion, tobacco growing, and brick burning in Mwazisi. Landsat images for 1991, 2004, and 2017 were downloaded from the United States Geological Survey website and used to analyze changes in forest cover. Interviews with households (n = 399) and Natural Resource Committee members, a focus group discussion with key officers, and observations were conducted during field data collection in 2017. The results of the land cover analysis showed that forest covered 66% of the study area in 1991, and by 2017 it had decreased to 45.8%. Most households depend on wood from customary land forests for tobacco curing (69%) and brick burning (68%). Furthermore, 47.6% of the households have expanded their agriculture land by approximately 0.57 hectares during the past 15 years. The interview survey and the focus group discussion identified that the underlying driving factors towards these anthropogenic activities are: (a) population growth, (b) poverty, (c) expensive alternative building materials, (d) lack of awareness, (e) lack of resources, (f) lack of commitment from the tobacco companies, and (g) market system of the cash crops grown in the area. In conclusion, a set of economic, institutional, social, and demographic factors, which are associated with imbalanced relationship between rural and urban areas, underpin agriculture expansion, tobacco growing, and brick burning, and have thereby contributed to the decline of the forest cover in Mwazisi, Malawi.
• ISSUE - 3
• VOLUME - 8
• DOI - 10.3390/land8030048
  

2018

• TITLE - Assessment of water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in response to an outbreak of typhoid fever in Neno District, Malawi
• AUTHOR - Sarah D. Bennett, Sara A. Lowther, Felix Chingoli, Benson Chilima, Storn Kabuluzi, Tracy L. Ayers, Thomas A. Warne, Eric Mintz
• JOURNAL - PLoS ONE
• ABSTRACT - On May 2, 2009 an outbreak of typhoid fever began in rural villages along the Malawi-Mozambique border resulting in 748 illnesses and 44 deaths by September 2010. Despite numerous interventions, including distribution of WaterGuard (WG) for in-home water treatment and education on its use, cases of typhoid fever continued. To inform response activities during the ongoing Typhoid outbreak information on knowledge, attitudes, and practices surrounding typhoid fever, safe water, and hygiene were necessary to plan future outbreak interventions. In September 2010, a survey was administered to female heads in randomly selected households in 17 villages in Neno District, Malawi. Stored household drinking water was tested for free chlorine residual (FCR) levels using the N,N diethyl-p-phenylene diamine colorimetric method (HACH Company, Loveland, CO, USA). Attendance at community-wide educational meetings was reported by 56% of household respondents. Respondents reported that typhoid fever is caused by poor hygiene (77%), drinking unsafe water (49%), and consuming unsafe food (25%), and that treating drinking water can prevent it (68%). WaterGuard, a chlorination solution for drinking water treatment, was observed in 112 (56%) households, among which 34% reported treating drinking water. FCR levels were adequate (FCR ‚â• 0.2 mg/L) in 29 (76%) of the 38 households who reported treatment of stored water and had stored water available for testing and an observed bottle of WaterGuard in the home. Soap was observed in 154 (77%) households, among which 51% reported using soap for hand washing. Educational interventions did not reach almost one-half of target households and knowledge remains low. Despite distribution and promotion of WaterGuard and soap during the outbreak response, usage was low. Future interventions should focus on improving water, sanitation and hygiene knowledge, practices, and infrastructure. Typhoid vaccination should be considered.
• ISSUE - 2
• VOLUME - 13
• DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0193348

2017

• TITLE - Maternal biomass smoke exposure and birth weight in Malawi: Analysis of data from the 2010 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey
• AUTHOR - Edith B. Milanzi, Ndifanji M. Namacha
• ABSTRACT - Use of biomass fuels has been shown to contribute to ill health and complications in pregnancy outcomes such as low birthweight, neonatal deaths and mortality in developing countries. However, there is insufficient evidence of this association in the Sub-Saharan Africa and the Malawian population. We, therefore, investigated effects of exposure to biomass fuels on reduced birth weight in the Malawian population. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using secondary data from the 2010 Malawi Demographic Health Survey with a total of 9124 respondents. Information on exposure to biomass fuels, birthweight, and size of child at birth as well as other relevant information on risk factors was obtained through a questionnaire. We used linear regression models for continuous birth weight outcome and logistic regression for the binary outcome. Models were systematically adjusted for relevant confounding factors. Results: Use of high pollution fuels resulted in a 92 g (95% CI: -320.4; 136.4) reduction in mean birth weight compared to low pollution fuel use after adjustment for child, maternal as well as household characteristics. Full adjusted OR (95% CI) for risk of having size below average at birth was 1.29 (0.34; 4.48). Gender and birth order of child were the significant confounders factors in our adjusted models. Conclusions: We observed reduced birth weight in children whose mothers used high pollution fuels suggesting a negative effect of maternal exposure to biomass fuels on birth weight of the child. However, this reduction was not statistically significant. More carefully designed studies need to be carried out to explore effects of biomass fuels on pregnancy outcomes and health outcomes in general.
• DOI - 10.4314/mmj.v29i2.16

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