Mission partner fights fever in Tanzania

A mission partner for international agency Crosslinks, Dr Alison Talbert has come back to Oxford recently from Tanzania, for six months home leave.

When not visiting her supporting churches around the UK she worships at St. Aldates in the city centre. Her work in Tanzania is at the Anglican Diocese of Central Tanganyika's 280 bed Mvumi Hospital where she is in charge of the children's ward and helps to train clinical officers.

Since 1998 Alison has managed an insecticide-treated mosquito net (ITN) project to prevent malaria – the most common cause of admission to the hospital. In her last tour she has been co-supervising a Tanzanian PhD student, William Kisinza, with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. His field work involves studying the effect of ITNs on soft ticks and tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) which is prevalent in the area due to poor housing.

Ninety per cent of the population around Mvumi is at risk of TBRF which is particularly
dangerous for pregnant women and small children. Forty per cent of babies born to pregnant women with TBRF will die but little attention is paid to the disease, overshadowed as it is by malaria. It is hoped that with the current emphasis on ITNs for malaria prevention and the Global Fund voucher scheme for cheap nets for pregnant women the two diseases can be prevented with one intervention.

If you would like to know more about Alison's work please check out her page at www.crosslinks.org/talbert or call Karen Scutt on 020 8691 6111.