Let's Not Relent in Fight Against Malaria
19 August 2007
On Thursday Kenya got a rare but deserved commendation from the World Health Organization, WHO over impressive results in the fight against malaria over the last two years. Like elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, malaria remains a serious health challenge in Kenya with the Ministry of Health placing the number of people at risk at 25 million.

Children under the age of five have however continued to bear the brunt of what has been singled out as the biggest child killer in Africa.

Two years ago, the government launched a campaign to provide insecticide-treated mosquito nets. The campaign was primarily targeted at children under the age of five. As the time campaign was being rolled out, 34,000 children under the age of five in Kenya were dying of malaria each year. By the end of last year, thanks to provision of insecticidal nets, child deaths and dropped by 44% or 16,000.

This is an encouraging development indicating that with sustained interventions, child deaths due to malaria can be reduced to dramatically low levels where it would cease being a health concern.

Indeed, based on the Kenyan success story, WHO has for the first time issued new global guidance for the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets to protect people from malaria. The global heath body recommends that insecticidal nets should be long lasting and distributed either free or at highly subsidised prices. They should also be used by all community workers.

While the campaign has mainly focused on children under five years and expectant mothers, its near phenomenal success makes a strong case for extending the campaign to include even adults. This new emphasis on prevention is particularly important given the fact that a vaccine for malaria remains elusive.

In Kenya, people in many areas remain susceptible to malaria because health facilities are either far from the populace, inadequate or grossly under-funded.

In some parts of the country where malaria prevalence is high, medical research has noted resistance to drugs that are commonly used for treatment. This has resulted in loss of life and cases of entire villages coming down with malaria have been reported.

The need to take provision of insecticidal nets to the next level is made even more critically urgent by the fact in far flung corners of the country, people have no access to medical care with the most vulnerable being children and expectant mothers.

With a few exceptions, malaria incidences in Kenya are concentrated in rural areas where agriculture is the main economic activity. When malaria strikes, it halts the economic wheel because people have to go in search of treatment or caring for those suffering from malaria.

When production is disrupted, social economic development suffers with vast negative consequences for the community. It means less food, clothing and a general downswing of standards of living. These in turn places the people at the risk of many other diseases as well.

The success of insecticidal nets in reduction of malaria-related deaths among children has been attributed to the fact that in partnership with donors, the government has been able to provide free 3.4 million nets as part of the campaign to reign in malaria prevalence.

In addition, the Ministry of Health plans to distribute a further 2 million long-lasting mosquito nets for use by children and pregnant women through health facilities around the country. If this policy is implemented, quickly and efficiently, it will result in even further reduction in malaria related deaths.

The beauty of the insecticidal net is at the cost of around Sh 350, it is relatively cheap and therefore affordable to many people. However, widespread use for the net would need a concerted awareness campaign to create a culture of net use in the country.

Since the operative word here is prevention rather than cure, to succeed, the campaign would go a long way if it sought to sensitise communities on the need embrace measures that make it difficult for mosquitoes to thrive.

These would include clearing stagnant water around homes, spraying homes with insecticides and use of repellents where possible.

While prevention of malaria infection would be primarily guided by the need to stem unnecessary loss of life, the country would stand to reap immensely in several areas.

Each year, millions of shillings are spent on the treatment of malaria. With infection going down, this money can be diverted to more urgent needs. Research on emerging disease would also benefit from such funds.

It would also ease the strain on the health care system where large numbers of patients seeking treatment are invariably suffering from malaria.

On the family front, it would mean that with less malaria incidences, family finances can be directed to other uses while more time can be spent productively for the greater well-being of the family.

All these would put the country on a faster lane towards the attainment of the millennium development goals.

Source/ Credit: The Nation ( Nairobi)
NEWS