PUERTO PRINCESA, Palawan – Pristine white sand beaches. Lush forests. Crisp air. Good food. Quiet evenings.
Welcome to Palawan, an island province in the Southern part of the Philippines. Travel guides say that Palawan is the largest province in the country in terms of area of jurisdiction, stretching from Mindanao to Borneo.
Tourists from around the globe flock the province’s resort and beaches, whether it’s for several days of diving, snorkeling or simply for basking under the warm rays of the sun.
Many call it paradise. Almost.
Palawan, breathtaking as it is, has been known as a malaria country for many years now.
According to an article published last year by the Philippine New Agency, a government-run media bureau, malaria is still prevalent in the province but has been declining through the years.
“Palawan health officer Dr. Ed Cruz said the status of malaria cases in this province continues to decline. Current data he provided shows that the number of recorded deaths has declined from 26 in 2007 to 11 deaths in 2008. Out of 32,598 blood smears collected from January 2009 to July 1, 2003, only 3,311 were confirmed cases of malaria,” the article said.
The province hopes to eradicate malaria in the province by 2015. Fighting malaria is included in the eight Millennium Development Goals, which nations across the globe including the Philippines signed up for. The government hopes to be able to achieve MDG 6 which is to combat HIV and AIDS and malaria and other diseases. In its progress report, which I published in an earlier post, the government said it is making some progress in fighting malaria. As of 2003, the death rate associated with malaria is 0.3 percent and the goal is to bring this to 0.0 percent.
The residents themselves are doing whatever they can to help achieve this goal.
Janino “Jet” Sales is one of them. Sales lives in a place called “Lawiswis,” the local term used to describe the rhythmic rustling that bamboo makes as it dances with the wind.
The place, surrounded by plants, flowers, rivers and streams, is both living space and a small makeshift laboratory where he makes medicinal oils, soaps and healing balms for various ailments including cancer and malaria.
Indeed, Sales has been producing massage oils, insect repellants and other products out of neem leaves, which is endemic to Palawan. His bestseller is Fluxin (flow toxin) which is made from the leaves.
In an interview with this blogger for TH!NK3, Sales said Fluxin and his other products offer a wide array of medicinal properties provided by neem leaves.
“The medicinal effects of neem have been proven time and again. What’s good is that they’re natural,” Sales said.
According to an article published by the National Library of Medicine, Azadirachta indica, commonly known as neem, has attracted worldwide prominence in recent years, owing to its wide range of medicinal properties.
Neem leaf and its constituents have been demonstrated to exhibit immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antihyperglycaemic, antiulcer, antimalarial, antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant, antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic properties,” it said.
Sales is optimistic that with everyone’s help, Palawan will soon be free of various diseases including malaria. His faith is as strong as the wonders that neem leaves bring.
Nice post, Iris. Glad to see you are doing quite well.
Iris, do you know what caused decrease of malaria? Systemic approach, malaria awareness campaign, combination of natural remedies and pharmaceuticals..?
Hi Iris - again a lovely post. Traditional medicine remains the first option for nearly 70% of all treatment-seeking efforts by people in developing countries. So the use of herbal medicines remains obscure in the science world but a massive reality in the real world.
Neem is a drug with anti-malarial properties. It orginates from India but has spread throughout the tropics. An aquous extract of neem leaves is know to be killing malaria parasites, and traditional uses of neem against malaria abound.
A few years ago we demonstrated that the oil of neem seeds is a perfect insecticide to kill larvae of malaria mosquitoes. At very low doses the stuff did miracles. Considering that neem trees are now grown throughout the tropics, this means that a no-cost source of larvicide is available to anyone willing to take the effort to press seeds for the oil…Amazingly enough, the uptake of this simple, low-cost solution, is still not as appealing as the use of high-cost insecticides…
Thanks for blogging about malaria!
very good question, Radka, would also love to know that.
Wow… Great news about the neem leaves. I love low-cost, low-tech solutions
Using neem rather than DDT (Ha ha ha!) would have my preference, surely. What is needed is the development of some private enterprise that collects seeds, gets the oil and starts to market neem oil as larvicide. In Nairobi there have been some efforts by a man called Dorian Rocco to develop this (at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology) but I don’t know how far he got with this…
hi Radka,
Yes it’s a combination of everything, including awareness campaign and support from nongovernment organizations.
@Bart,
I was hoping you’d read this entry. Thanks so much. I agree with the way you put it: “So the use of herbal medicines remains obscure in the science world but a massive reality in the real world.”
And yes, I had been looking forward to blogging about malaria. It caught my interest because I read your articles about it.
@Helena, thanks for your comment. Yes, it’s largely because of the awareness campaign, support from nongovernment organizations and a combination of other factors such as the use of herbal medicines.
@Daniel,
You are right. It seems to be a very amazing plant.
@Bart,
You are right. There is a need to create the infrastructure for the collecting of seeds, etc.
Thanks for your invaluable insights on malaria.
I forgot to ask Bart…Is this kind of remedy popular in Africa? What were the results of that guy from Nairobi?
Iris, thanks for explanation.
Maybe it would be worth to spread best practise to other regions where they tackle the same issue. And definitely miraculous neem plant