Malaria child deaths drop by 40 per cent

Kenya has recorded significant reversal in malaria trends since 2006 when it began implementing the National Malaria Strategy.

The number of malaria outpatient cases in health institutions has dropped by 13 per cent while in-patient figures and deaths have also dropped.

Public Health assistant minister James Gesami said the country had not experienced any malaria epidemic in the last five years. This, he said, was a pointer that the government interventions were proving efficient in the fight against malaria.
Key interventions

According to Dr Gesami, childhood deaths in malaria endemic districts of Coast, Western and Nyanza provinces dropped by 44 per cent in the period.

“It is gratifying to note that Kenya has been able to substantially implement most of the interventions in the national malaria strategy to levels that have now been demonstrated to have a positive health impact,” said Dr Gesami.

The assistant minister was addressing the annual general meeting of the Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance, a pan-African organisation operating in 10 African states in a Kisumu hotel on Monday.

He said that the major challenge for Kenya and other governments in Africa was now firmly rooted on eliminating the disease using new tools.

“One such tool is no doubt going to be an effective malaria vaccine,” he noted. He added that the vaccine was long overdue for the continent that contributes up to 90 per cent of the one million annual deaths due to malaria globally.

A vaccine against malaria enters the third phase this year. Hopes are high that its success will help reverse the high child mortality rates once it becomes available.

More than 16,000 infants will be tested in the identified sites during this phase of the vaccine development.

Kenya boasts of three trial sites out of the 16 in 10 African countries.

“Initially, the vaccine is going to be expensive because of the nature of development,” he told the meeting.