Nurse On Duty: I Dey Kill Mosquito Welli Welli

I haven’t felt so bad all my life.It really hurt me to see this happen. I had chased this thing for over 5minutes, clapped my hands in the air,hit them so hard. I could see the redness in my palm already. With their whispers,I felt like removing my ears. I couldn’t count how many ‘Igbaju’ I had given my self ,I just chop slap for nothing,the unfortunate mosquito has run away! But I know that ajeku iya is awaiting it.

Finally, I gave another sound clap kpa! This time I caught it as it got messed up on my palms. Hian! I looked at it sadly,this thing has sucked my blood! I felt like all my 4.5 litres of blood was gone. Blood that I am still managing! Blood of Zekaraya! How many is my body? I was so angry that I felt like killing the spirit of the mosquito if I ever saw it wandering around even after death.

You may want to know why I am angry at an innocent mosquito who is only trying to get daily bread. My hemoglobin genotype AA is prone to Malaria!

The reason isn’t far fetched as AA red blood cells have normal hemoglobin (in structure and quantity) meaning a higher oxygen binding capacity -fueling the parasite’s replication process.Previously conducted researches have shown that malaria parasites have a high rate of oxygen consumption and ingest large amounts of hemoglobin during the peripheral blood stage of replication .

This makes the AA blood more conducive and malaria parasite thrives better in it.

This is why the AA genotype is prone to Malaria.

In a carrier ,the presence of malaria parasite causes the red blood cell with defective haemoglobin to rupture prematurely making the plasmodium parasite unable to reproduce.

Hence, the malaria parasite find it hard to survive in a sickle cell carrier. This makes the chances of survival of an AS increase in areas where there is malaria. So no malaria fashioned against an AS can prosper!

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasite. It is transmitted by female Anopheles mosquito. Now,this is where what a man can do ,a woman can do better comes in. When mosquito bites a person,the parasite attacks liver cells. From the liver,they go to the red blood cells where they multiply. This is when the symptoms of Malaria starts from. The symptoms such as; headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, body pain could only be confirmed by the presence of malaria parasite in the blood. This is because malaria has similar symptoms with other febrile illnesses.

The only way to prevent malaria is by dealing with the mosquitoes. Do we then shoot them with a gun or poison mosquitoes? We can try if we can! Mosquito nets,mosquito repellents and spray is very important .This will help to prevent mosquitoes from biting us. Morever, our environment should be kept neat enough to avoid mosquitoes breeding around.

Next time you see me killing mosquitoes, you should understand that I am not just trying to be a ‘Small doctor’ who dey kill mosquito well well as a hobby, but I am doing it with para!

I REMAIN MY HUMBLE SELF, KIKELOMO SOWORE, NURSE ON DUTY