Tracking Malaria in Africa: Amy Maxmen Visits Davidson College

Join Pulitzer Center grantee and science journalist Amy Maxmen when she visits Davidson College on Thursday, April 3, and speaks about her reporting on malaria prevention efforts in West Africa.

As storms sweep across the Sahel, African children will periodically swallow anti-malaria drugs to halt the disease regardless of whether they have it. Public health experts have protested this preventative measure for decades, fearing it will cause widespread drug resistance. However, large clinical trials recently demonstrated that the measure averts 75 percent of severe malaria cases.

Senegal, Mali, Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Togo are now implementing the program, in which children take monthly doses of the anti-malarial medication. In her project for the Pulitzer Center 'Malaria at The Cost of Drug Resistance', Maxmen observes the effectiveness of the treatment, along with the obstacles it faces.

Thursday, April 3
7 pm
Davidson College
C. Shaw Smith 900 Room
Alvarez College Union
Davidson, NC