St. Louis medical students deliver to Africa by bicycle

Andy Sherman and Jesse Matthews are determined to stop the spread of the disease, which they say is both preventable and deadly, by purchasing and delivering by bicycle mosquito nets to villages of West Africa. . . .

This summer will be the second trip to West Africa for the third year medical school students. In 2005, Sherman and Matthews raised $5,500, enough to purchase 605 mosquito nets, which protected 1,800 people in seven small Senegal villages that were so remote trucks couldn’t get to them. They delivered the nets by bicycle.

This summer they will return to Senegal for about 10 weeks and hope to increase the number of lives they touch by delivering 1,000 nets to 10 villages. As part of their project, they teach education sessions that prepare villagers to spread the word about how to prevent the malaria.