Crystal Huesca

Professor Wallace

ENGL 1302 Composition II

November 9, 2015

Infestation in Africa

Collie, Asher. "Sole Hope - Offering Hope & Healthier Lives in Uganda, Africa." Sole Hope. N.p., 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.

This website was by far the most interesting one that a viewer can come across when researching about the jigger flea. It is a valuable resource that describes how a group of passionate, committed people are putting closed toed shoes on African children, one pair at a time. It all started with an encounter with a YouTube video, a video that touched a young couple so deep that in their hearts they knew that they had to do something to help the children who lived in Uganda. They realized that not only could they help African children live lives free from jiggers, but they could also help African men and women by teaching them a trade, how to make shoes. Young couple and founders of Sole Hope, Asher Collie and her husband Dru Collie, lived an ordinary American life. Dru managed a chain of coffee shops and Asher was building her photography business and taking care of their young children and foster children. Just by online researching and a couple of trips to Africa the couple realized that there was an issue that needed to be dealt with. Together they formed a team that created medical clinics, provided education, and jobs for the people in Uganda. After the expansion of their organization they knew they had to create a web-site that provided information and also educate people about the issue of jiggers. Just like the other websites that I’ve researched, this one is no different. On the very top there are tabs that help you navigate through the website. It provides for you: there story on how they began the organization and the team that started it all, It also provides a gallery with amazing pictures and videos, information on how to get involved, a store tab so that you can purchase T-shirts, water jugs, bracelets, etc., a contact tab and a donation tab. When I came across this website I realized that this couple was going beyond than just cleaning out jiggers from individual’s feet. The main problem of this source was that the people in the communities did not have shoes to wear leaving their feet bare for jiggers to infest and live in. By providing shoemakers to make shoes the communities were able to sustain and control the infestation. This website is a valuable resource that teaches individuals that by opening one single door can lead to many pathways. Just like this young couple that provided shoemakers and tailors to these communities which provides jobs for men and woman and also shoes for children to wear.

Hermann, Feldmeier, and Et. La. "A Neglected Disease with Many Challenges for Global Public Health." PLOS. N.p., 2014. Web. 09 Nov. 2015

This article is a complete overall analysis of the sand flea named Tunga Penetrans also known as the Jigger. The article not only introduces the insect but also the destruction of one’s health and the torment that one endures. Due to the resource-poor communities, tungiasis is basically neglected by health care providers, policy makers, the scientific community, the pharmaceutical industry, and funding institutions. Adults and children who live in these poor communities suffer from inflammation in the feet, deep ulcers, gangrene, lymphangitis, and septicemia. The article is divided into sections that consist of: An informative introduction, the biology and transmission of a parasite, the morbidity and consequences for public health, the lack of no reliable data on disease occurrences, morbidity control, and the final considerations. The article on Tunga Penetrans provides an extensive amount of material that was gathered by professional doctors and other medical and health specialists, who specialize in Microbiology and Hygiene, Community Health, Dept. of Zoology and Research. They also gathered information from other sources including the references to relocate the material. The article is published in the Tungiasis—A Neglected Disease with Many Challenges for Global Public Health Journal which is an open access, editorial online journal that provides all material based on the Tunga Penetrans. For individuals that are in the health profession or who commit their time in volunteer work, this article displays a pervasive amount of knowledge that was once confined but now is being exposed to the public; not only to educate oneself but to help others in need who don’t have the resources or assistance to help themselves.

Kamau, Stanley. "Ahadi Kenya Trust." Ahadi Kenya Trust. N.p., 2007. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.

While this resource is similar to the Kill the Jigger Rise Up Society, this website is a very resourceful and educational and provides an extended amount of information on how this organization has been involved in providing and teaming up with other organizations in helping out different communities in Africa in regards to the infestation of the jigger. The website is easily designed for viewers to navigate through the website without any complications. It’s designed to be organized, easy to read, concise, and professional. Dr. Stanley Kamau made sure that whenever the viewers visited this website that not only were they going to get reading material but also pictures and videos demonstrating how his team and himself have assisted individuals that live in these communities. Dr. Stanley Kamau is the founder and executive director of the Adadi Kenya Trust organization. He graduated from the University of India with a degree in Humanities and Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy. As a child he suffered from jiggers and the conditions were so severe that it almost made him drop out of primary school. With his experience of being taunted by the jiggers Dr. Kamau formed the Ahadi Kenya Trust, which provides medical treatment for 2.6 million Kenyans affected with jiggers. "The fact is, most people who live at the bottom of poverty don't have mobile phones, they don't have radios or TV sets, and they have no channel of communication. They might not even know what kind of a dispensary or hospital is near them," he notes. It was then that he developed the ambulance Mashinani, or village ambulance, that attaches to the back of a motorcycle. Ahadi Kenya trust received peer recognition as the best Social Marketing effort as the Executive Director Dr. Stanley Kamau was installed as a marketing Warrior by the Marketing Society of Kenya. Ahadi Kenya Trust and Dr. Kamau have received more than 12 awards both locally and internationally. They include; Head of State Commendation from His Excellency the President of the Republic of Kenya, Global Leadership and Management 2009 Award, Volunteer Involving Organization of the Year Award 2010, Humanitarian Organization of the Year award, Honorary Doctorate and Young Achievers Awards among others. The major success in this project was creating the awareness on jigger infestation in the whole East Africa area. Before launching this project, no one knew anything about jiggers. Opening 41 centers in Kenya, one in Uganda and one in Tanzania have helped in disseminating information on the subject. Rescuing and referring jigger victims to different hospitals. Jigger infestation was been viewed as a social problem and no hospital in Kenya was treating the disease. Today anyone suffering can get treatment from the nearest hospital. They have directly provided treatment to more than 300,000 victims and fumigated more than 15,000 homesteads. With the support of well-wishers they have distributed 23,000 pairs of shoes, sanitation material, food and clothing to the poor families. For the children, they provided them with school equipment and uniforms. They formed bee-keeping and banana-planting projects for the adults as a way of empowering them and stemming the poverty cycle which is the major cause of jigger infestation. The future of the anti-jigger campaign is to eradicate poverty. Some people are so poor they cannot afford even a simple pin to remove one jigger. They cannot afford sanitation materials including soap, basins and such. They are empowering the communities on how to get involved in simple agricultural activities. By breaking the poverty cycle, they will have eradicated jiggers. This Website gives the reader a complete outlook on how just one person can really make a difference in our world. Giving back to your community doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend money; there are other ways to contribute back to your community: cleaning, donating clothes, volunteering, etc.

Khazan, Olga. "The Researcher Who Let a Sand Flea Live in Her Foot." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 19 Nov. 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.

There’s a proud tradition of scientists conducting experiments on themselves: Jonas Salk injected his entire family with the first polio vaccine. Sir Humphry Davy inhaled the fumes he concocted in his chemistry lab. The German physician Werner Forssmann stuck a catheter in his own heart. But, there are still people like Marlene Thielecke, a PhD student in tropical medicine at Charite University Medicine in Berlin, who not only did the research but was also part of the research. This article which was written by Olga Khazan, explains to the readers how the research purpose is to understand the reproduction of the sand flea and to help people who are already a host to one flea and to avoid getting more. Olga Khazan is a staff writer for The Atlantic, where she covers gender and health. Prior to that, she was The Atlantic‘s Global editor. Before joining the magazine, she covered international affairs and start-ups for the Washington Post. She has also written for the Los Angeles Times, Forbes, and Wired. She has recently been named one of the most Dugg writers of the year, one of FP’s Twitterati, and one of Real Clear Science’s “10 Best Science Writers of 2014.” She is a recipient of the International Reporting Project’s Journalism Fellowship. She was one of two finalists selected among hundreds of eligible entrants for the New York Academy of Medicine‘s 2015 Urban Health Journalism Prize. In this article, Khazan retells in detail how a reporter allowed a sand flea to lodge in her foot. It all began when Thielecke was living in central Madagascar, prime sand flea country, for an eight-month stretch in 2011. While working with people who were suffering from tungiasis, Thielecke, herself turned into a prey to a sand flea that tunneled deep into the sole of her right foot. And that’s where she had decided to leave it. “I saw that it wasn't harming me at all, so I decided to leave it to observe the stages of the flea,” stated Thielecke. Thielecke knew that the sand fleas tend to attract each other, so she made sure to wear shoes and socks every day to avoid getting another flea. Over the next few months, Thielecke observed her flea as it grew. She noticed something strange, it wasn’t dying, as the fleas typically do after about four to six weeks, and it also wasn’t expelling any eggs. This fact helped Thielecke understand that it hadn’t reproduced, most likely because she kept the flea separated from its male suitors and in a permanent, single-girl-in-the-foot-city “waiting period,” as she called it. It also taught her something about the sand flea reproductive style. The males find the clusters of females, hidden alluringly just beyond a thin layer of skin, and make their move. “The single embedded sand flea remained a virgin,” Thielecke wrote. After six weeks with her flea, Thielecke was in pain and found it hard to walk, so she had it surgically removed. Thielecke’s research wasn’t going to necessarily help prevent sand flea scourges in countries like Madagascar, but it might help people who are already a host to one flea and avoid getting more. This article demonstrates to readers that there are times where you would have to put yourself in certain situations in order to get a better result on the material you are investigating. Self-experimentation has been an important means of making new discoveries, and it is only in the past century that self-experimentation has been increasingly frowned upon. What is more important to note is that in the recent past self-experimentation has been used as last resort to overcome a majority opinion. While self-experimentation may not have a place in much of the research today - such as cancer and AIDS research, it is important to remember that self-experimentation can be an important part of the progress of science.

"Kill the Jigger." Kill the Jigger. Rise up Society, 2014. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.

The web-site gives you a better outlook of the circumstances in some of the resource-poor communities. It not only gives you information on what their organization is relative to but it also offers information on how you can donate and help out these poor communities. In Kenya, it’s estimated that 1.4 million people are affected by jiggers. Majority of the people that live in rural areas live in poverty and neglect proper hygiene. Kill The Jigger organization visits these communities in Kenya and help individuals affected by jiggers and also teaches them proper hygiene. They go to rural villages removing jiggers from victims, one day at a time. They also provide jiggerist kit, which is an assembly of essential medical supplies that communities can use to remove jiggers on their own. This web-site provides great information about the organization. The web-site contains five tabs on the very top right corner. The first tab is “FAQ”, which provides detail questions that are frequently asked and answers to follow. The second tab is “What we do”, which gives a short description about the organization. The third tab is “Our Story”, which provides information on how and why the organization was organized. The fourth tab is “Be a Volunteer”, which gives you access to their contact information and also information on how you can support and be a volunteer, rather you are a health care professional, church group, teams or special facilities. The last tab is “Contact us”, which is a field where you can personally email the organization to partner up with the group or if you just want to know more about the work they do for these communities. Jim Nduruchi is the organization founder; he has a long term, hands-on experience in community mobilization and development and strategy formulation and implementation. Jim has also provided a YouTube channel, which has over 60,000 subscribers, that is for informational purposes and to educate and inform the world of the Jigger menace in Kenya causing suffering across all ages, and to promote awareness and partnership with viewers to help eradicate the menace. For those with busy lives, it can be hard to find time to volunteer. However, this website has also made it easy for you to contribute to these communities by donating money. For individuals that are looking to gain knowledge in the health care field, volunteering is a great way to do so. Volunteering also strengthens your ties to the community and broadens your support network, exposing you to people with common interests and neighborhood resources.

Jodon, Courtny. "Blair Oaks High School Makes Shoes for African Children." KRCG. N.p., 12 Feb. 2015. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.

On February 12, 2015 a local news channel in Missouri, known as 13KRCG, broadcasted a story about a Blair Oaks Spanish teacher, Sarah Bohl, who hosted a shoe making party for her classes which was all about making shoes for African children. Bohl found out about this program from Lindsey Pantaleo, a woman who traveled to Uganda to work with a charity called Sole Hope. The students ended up making one hundred twenty-six pairs of shoes. The shoes were then sent off to Sole Hope to be completed for the children by African tailors. This news article is a great example of how ponderous this issue is. While readers are investigating on what jiggers are they can also come across actual stories that local news channels are broadcasting in regards to this issue. This news story caught the eye of a reporter by the name of Courtny Jodon. Courtny Jodon is a 2014 graduate of Point Park University in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, with a B.A. in Broadcasting. She is currently a Reporter/Multimedia Journalist at KRCG 13 in the Jefferson City/Columbia Missouri area. She has the skills to set up her own interviews and go through the lengths that make a great story come to life. She was a Bucco Brigade Member which is an interactive squad that handles all in-game entertainment at all Pirates home games. She served as an ambassador to fans in the ballpark and in community. She was in the Student Production Services at Point Park University. During her years at Point Park she was a one-man-band/reporter/anchor/host for various shows on our campus station named U-View. This news article is a great example of how an outside source got together with an organization to help out on a crisis. The school not only got recognition through their local news station, but they also set an example by showing how kids came together to partner up with an organization to do volunteer work. Not only did Sarah Bohl demonstrate to viewers and readers how effortless it was to not only have she done the volunteer work but how she had her classes be involved as well.

Service, Mike. Medical Entomology for Students. New York: Cambridge UP, 2012. Print.

Entomology is the study of insects and their relationship to humans, the environment, and other organisms. Despite numerous scientific investigations on vector-borne human infections such as Malaria, Lyme disease and Typhus these diseases continue to threaten human health. Understanding the role of vectors in disease transmission, and the most appropriate control strategies, is therefore essential. This book provides information on the recognition, biology, ecology and medical importance of the arthropods that affect human health. The fifth edition of this popular textbook is completely updated and aids recognition. A glossary of entomological and epidemiological terms is included, along with a list of commonly used insecticides and their trade names. Clearly presented in a concise style, this text is aimed at students of medical entomology, tropical medicine, and parasitology and pest control. It is also essential reading for physicians, health officials and community health workers. Mike Service is a world authority on medical entomology and has over 50 years’ experience of research and teaching in the field. He is Emeritus Professor of Medical Entomology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. In 1997 he was awarded the Sir Rickard Christopher’s medal by the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and in 2002 the Harry Hoogstraal Medal by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, for research on medical vectors. In this particular text book in chapter eleven (p. 185-186), Service gives the reader a complete summary of what a tunga penetran is. He explains how the flea is found in different parts of the world but it is increasingly found in travelers returning home from tropical countries. Tunga penetrans is sometimes referred to as the chigoe, jigger or sand flea. Tunga penetrans do not transmit any diseases but is a nuisance because only the females become imbedded in the skin. Both sexes feed on blood, but whereas the male soon leaves the host after taking a blood-meal, the female, after being fertilized, burrows itself into the skin where it is soft, such as between the toes or under the toenails, leaving just a tiny opening to the outside world through which it poops, breathes, and pushes out a creamy white fluid filled with eggs. Other areas of the foot, including the soles, may also be invaded. People or infants who sit on the ground may have an infestation around the buttocks area. Newly emerged adults jump and crawl on the ground until they locate a host, usually a person or animal and the cycle starts all over again. This textbook provides great information in regards to entomology, including the anatomy, physiology, embryology and metamorphoses of insects, for use in agricultural and technical schools and colleges as well as by the working entomologist. Entomologists make great contributions to such diverse fields as agriculture, chemistry, biology, human/animal health, molecular science, criminology, and forensics. The study of insects serves as the basis for developments in biological and chemical pest control, food and fiber production and storage, pharmaceuticals epidemiology, biological diversity, and a variety of other fields of science.

Smith, Darvin Scott, and Et. La. "Tungiasis." WebMDLLC. WebMD, 1994. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

This website is a strong resource to investigate about the skin disease known as Tungiasis; not only does it provide information on what the disease is and the history of when it was discovered but it’s also an insight for travelers who are traveling to sandy areas in affected regions of different countries. The article gives you six different sections consisting of: the Background of the disease, Patient Education, Etiology, Epidemiology, The Prognosis and Pathophysiology. The research article is published in the Medscape website, which is a peer reviewed online research that provides a great understanding of the disease. Tungiasis was first reported in crewmen who sailed with Christopher Columbus. Tungiasis is rarely diagnosed in North America, but is should no longer be obscure to physicians because of the increasing international travel to tropical destinations. Upon contact, the flea invades unprotected skin. The flea has limited jumping ability so the most common site of involvement is the feet. Only the female flea can produce the typical skin lesions of tungiasis. The primary complicating factor of tungiasis infection is the bacterial superinfections that can result from loss of integrity of the skin structures on the feet causing cellulitis and spreading infection. With repeated and extensive infections, pain and even difficulty walking are significant contributors to morbidity. The authors of this research article all have strong educational backgrounds. Dr. Mark R. Wallace graduated from the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1988. He currently works at Scottsdale, AZ and specializes in internal medicine. Dr. Wallace is also a member of numerous medical societies. Dr. Darvin Scott Smith is the chief of the Department of Infectious Disease at Kaiser Permanente in Redwood City, Californian and he also teaches several classes at Stanford. Dr. Smith volunteers as a community neighborhood network lead in Hillsborough and works with international disaster response to vector borne disease threats as a clinical lead for MENTOR-initiative around the world. Dr. Smith is also a member of numerous medical societies. Dr. Stephanie Nevins is a practicing Anesthesiologist in Tempe AZ. Dr. Nevins graduated from University of Arizona College of Medicine in 2001 and has been in practice for 10 years. Dr. Nevins is also a research assistant. For travelers who are considering traveling to certain foreign countries must be advised to wear shoes (not sandals) when walking along sandy areas in affected regions and to refrain from sitting or lying in the sand. The major risk factor for exposure to tunga penetrans is failure to wear shoes when walking in sand in an area with active infestation. Wearing shoes and not sitting or lying in the sand is the most important steps to reduce infection.