allAfrica.com: Africa: Effective Strategies Needed to Combat Malaria (Page 1 of 2)

Kenya is one of the countries that have the best knowledge about malaria in the world today. Paradoxically, it is also one of the countries with the highest number of people who succumb to the disease.

This shows that African countries have not laid out proper strategies on how to fight the disease, and they have not fully participated in the control of the disease. First, the solution to the malaria problem in Africa lies in engaging local people to find out what they know about the disease and what they are capable of doing in order to control it. This information can then be used to develop products and services that are relevant to the needs of African people.

The global health agencies concerned with malaria control must focus on understanding how people control, treat and the beliefs on malaria locally, instead of bringing solutions imposed from the West. The problem is that the West has owned the malaria problem, and continues to leave Africans out when seeking solutions.

Malaria is a major killer disease in Africa. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that about 1.3 million people died from the disease in 2005. Children and pregnant women are more susceptible to malaria. About 90 per cent of malaria deaths occur in children under five years of age.

The health body recommends widespread use of treated mosquito nets , and spraying of insecticides around houses, arguing that sleeping under the mosquito nets reduces the likelihood of catching malaria by about 25 per cent.

This was the argument that was used to create the Roll Back Malaria Programme in 1998, with an aim of reducing malaria prevalence by 50 per cent every five years. In 1998, malaria killed only about 250,000 people each year worldwide. The plan by WHO was a massive distribution of millions of insecticide treated mosquito nets throughout the continent and other areas in of the world where malaria is endemic. These were good intentions.

The programme only worked on one front. The organisation managed to distribute millions of insecticide treated nets in many African countries. But malaria cases did not reduce. In fact, since 1998, the number of deaths due to malaria have steadily risen from 250,000 to 1.3 million deaths by 2005.

Analysts have offered explanations to this increase in the face of increased investment to fight the disease. One of the explanations was that the people living in malaria endemic zones did not use the mosquito nets as advised.

Other said people living in malaria endemic areas used the mosquito nets exactly as WHO recommended, but the mosquitoes bit them before they went to bed. Thus, the people are likely to have contracted malaria already before using the treated nets.

According to the recommendation WHO, the nets are only used when sleeping. This hinders the purpose of use of nets as a way to eradicating malaria because people do not carry the net everywhere.

The mosquitoes come out in the evenings and these are times when women are preparing food in open places, young children are winding up the play time before dinner. At this time, the mosquitoes are busy buzzing around, looking for candidates to bite.

They bite unsuspecting pregnant women sitting at the fireplace and the children playing outside. By the time they go to bed under the care of treated nets the bite from the mosquito has already transmitted the malaria parasites. In these circumstances, bed nets do not offer any protection.

The bed nets recommended by WHO are treated with pyrethroids. A pyrethroid is a synthetic version of natural pyrethrin. The WHO imports pyrethroids from a Japanese manufacturer, to treat mosquito nets imported from China. The pyrethroids are also used for indoor residual spraying.

Why does WHO import pyrethroids to Kenya instead of buying pyrethrum from Kenyan farmers? Why do they have to import the nets when they can buy them from a local manufacturer?

The fundamental problem is that this leads to flooding of synthetic pyrethroid in the local market. This story is not unique to Kenya. The same thing is happening in Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

It is time for Kenyan pyrethrum producers to get involved in malaria control. First they will contribute to eradicating a disease that is killing millions of Africans, and second, they will generate new and sustainable sources of income. Kenyans have grown pyrethrum for many years. However, Kenyans do not grow pyrethrum for malaria control. Pyrethrum Board of Kenya (PBK) exports most of the pyrethrum produced in Kenyan.

Malaria prevention and care

It is time that PBK markets the produce instead of the aggressive Japanese business reaping all the benefits.

If the PBK sold pyrethrum to WHO, pyrethrum farmers would benefit. This will also reduce the cost of the insecticides as they will be locally produced . Kenyans should seize this opportunity and help fight malaria.

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