Vol 112: Spilled milk
On a recent trip to Nashville, Tennessee, I had a long and somewhat in-depth conversation with my taxi driver, hereafter referred to as Cameron. Cameron was a distinguished gentleman with salt and pepper hair and remarkably kind eyes. Appearing to be in his mid-60s, he was slim with an oversized jacket and faded jeans. As he approached me and gestured to put my bags in the car, I quickly did so in his stead. Cameron offered a warm smile in return. It was the kind of smile that expressed pride and gratitude in equal part. I recognized it immediately because it was the smile my father often gave me growing up.
With traffic, it was a near thirty-minute drive from the airport to my hotel. Intrigued by my accent, Cameron asked where I was from and hearing that I was visiting from The Bahamas excited him beyond measure. ‘Beautiful beach’ he shouted, as he motioned his right thumb up and down, repeatedly before saying that ‘It’s better in The Bahamas’. There is a subdued anxiousness that every black man has when visiting a new place for the first time. We rarely speak of it amongst one another but we inherently understand what this feeling is. Being blanketed by Cameron’s excitement made me chuckle and immediately feel at ease. So much so that I felt inclined to ask him where he was from.
Cameron was born in Ethiopia and moved to The United States with his parents when he was still a baby. In truth, he had no direct recollection of the hardships that spurred their migration except for the stories passed down from his parents to him and his siblings. They left their entire family and all their friends in Ethiopia and when they moved, all they had was one another. John F. Kennedy was president and him saying that immigrants came to America for hope of economic opportunity and the hope of personal freedom struck a chord in Cameron’s father. They remained proud of where they were from but America quickly became their home.
With a population of approximately 132 million people, Ethiopia is located in East Africa and at the time was ripe with political turmoil. In 1960, when Cameron was still a baby, there was an attempt to overthrow their Emperor (Haile Selassie) in a coup d’etat led (amongst others) by the commander of the imperial guard. The coup attempt failed but 300 people were killed and the imperial armed forces gained more political importance than ever before. Cameron recalls his family saying that their country felt unnecessarily oppressive even years later and coupled with a burgeoning malaria outbreak, they opted to seek a better life some eight thousand miles away. But, in what Cameron referred to as a twisted sense of irony, in 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated.
In one of history’s most prolific epidemics, between July and December of 1958, Ethiopia reported 3.5 million cases of Malaria that resulted in 150,000 deaths. Among those deaths were some of Cameron’s family members, whom he says are lost but not forgotten. That outbreak was one of the main reasons why his father chose to uproot their family.
In today’s column, after meeting Cameron, I wanted to highlight Malaria since most people don’t know what it is and the devastation it’s inflicted throughout history. The timing, I believe, is fortuitous in light of President Donald Trump’s recent nomination of Robert Kennedy Jr. (nephew of President John F. Kennedy) for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services given his previous controversial stance on the danger of vaccines.
For immediate clarification, Robert Kennedy Jr. has emphasized unequivocally (most recently in a National Public Radio interview) that vaccines will not be taken away. Instead, he wants to improve the science on vaccine safety. It’s important mentioning that Robert Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer, has been a long friend and advocate of The Bahamas and for many years he was an instrumental voice in the Save the Bays/ Clifton Pier campaign.
Malaria is an infectious disease spread by female mosquitoes with symptoms occurring within 10 to 15 days (or longer) of being bitten. Symptoms typically include vomiting, headache, muscle pain, diarrhea and intense bouts of fever, chills and fatigue. In more severe cases it can cause organ failure, respiratory distress, seizures, coma and ultimately death.
The mosquito bite transfers the plasmodium parasite that causes Malaria to humans. It then travels to the liver, matures and begins reproducing and invading liver cells which eventually break down releasing even more invasive parasites into the blood. When there are approximately 100,000 parasites per milliliter of blood, symptoms occur. Diagnosis is confirmatory with a blood test but symptomology and travel history offer clear markers for early differentials.
For a long time, treatment was primarily focused on prevention via the use of mosquito nets during sleep, insect repellants and consistent drainage of standing water. There are also anti-malarial medications aimed at killing the parasite. Fortunately, today, there’s also two malaria vaccines widely available and approved by the World Health Organization. Cameron says those vaccines weren’t available when he was younger. When his parents describe how much death they witnessed at the hands of this disease a chill comes over him to this day. They gave the children milk to drink to boost their immune system in a desperate, futile attempt to save them. Looking back, his parents say that the government should have helped more but he adds that hindsight is 20/20.
To date, despite the incredible strides that have been made, Malaria continues to be one of the deadliest diseases in the world causing over 600,000 deaths (and 249 million cases across 85 countries) in 2022 alone. Globally, over 75% of those deaths occurred in children under the age of five. Even more astounding is that scientists and medical experts believe that Malaria has been responsible for up to one billion deaths or more over the course of history.
Fortunately, Malaria is not endemic in The Bahamas and has been largely eliminated throughout the Caribbean except on the islands of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic). The last documented case of Malaria in The Bahamas was in 2012 on Exuma when an infected US traveler visited the island. Before that, in 2006, there were 19 reported cases on the same island in travelers from North America and Europe.
Anti-malarial drugs (as well as aspirin, NSAIDs and certain antibiotics) cannot be administered to people who are G6PD deficient so testing for that deficiency is crucial for any Bahamian seeking to travel to any region where Malaria may be prevalent. There are no statistics available on how many people in The Bahamas specifically have G6PD deficiency but worldwide estimates suggest the number is around 400 million people.
As I pulled up to my hotel, I asked Cameron one last question. I wanted to know if he’d ever go back to Ethiopia to live once he retired. He said no. America is his home and the only home he truly knows. Many people he loved died from Malaria and for many years his family wishes that more of them had moved to the US sooner. But in words that really stuck with me, before driving off he said that crying over spilled milk is an unworthy exercise of one’s time. Talking about what happened will ensure that we remember the people who died and fight to save others from a similar fate.
On a recent trip to Nashville, Tennessee, in my all too brief airport ride, I met Cameron from Ethiopia and he told me that many people he loved died from Malaria but action and compassion will save the world. It’s safe to say that I and many others would agree.
This is The KDK Report.
