SALUS: Community driven malaria treatment, for people, by people.
Salus is a total redesign of the current packaging, distribution, and treatment system for antimalarial artemisinin-based combination treatment (ACT) drugs in Ethiopia.
It empowers rural communities to detect and treat Malaria themselves, locally, whilst simultaneously giving early warning of drug shortages to the regional health bureau.
What
Salus incorporates preexisting cultural and visual language, which allows it to be used easily by any member of the community. One kit holds medicine for 160 people and requires no literacy or prior medical training.
All components of Salus are explained visually instead of through written instructions. Each step is numbered and has a corresponding infographic and color. The kit lives within the rural community in what is called a “Community House”. These houses, which functioned as the original health clinics, have existed for decades in rural communities and are still the first stop when a member of the community falls sick.
How
Malaria is the number one killer in Ethiopia responsible for 40% of deaths annually and 20% of deaths in children under the age of five. Plasmodium Falciparum, the most prevalent strain in Ethiopia, kills its victims within 3 days and can infect the brain.
Epidemics are most prevalent during the peak of the harvest season in a country where 70% of the population are farmers living in rural areas.
Health clinics are overcrowded and severely understaffed, and patients must travel up to 30km by foot to reach the nearest help.
