Wellness & Fitness

Mosquito larvae targeted in new anti-malaria drive

malaria

Malaria is the second leading cause of death in Kenya. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Kenya targets to eliminate mosquito larvae in breeding sites as part of a new campaign against the killer malaria disease, a top Health ministry official said.

The technique, known as larviciding, would involve killing larvae by applying bio-agents to control the reproduction of the malaria transmitting insects.

“This is a fairly new tact in the country and will see us reduce adult vector populations which can reduce the transmission of malaria,” Waqo Ejersa, Head of the National Malaria Control Programme, said. The country’s anti-malaria campaigns relies on insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), indoor-residual spraying (IRS), with insecticides and treatment of clinical malaria.

Many experts however believe that an integrated vector management (IVM), targeting both larvae and adult mosquitoes, would yield better results in the fight against malaria.

Although ITNs is currently the top priority strategy, there is growing interest in dealing with mosquito lavae.

Malaria is the second leading cause of death in Kenya. According to the Economic Survey 2018, deaths from the disease rose 9.7 per cent to 17,553 in 2017.

The most affected were pregnant women and children below the age of five. The Health ministry linked the rise in the death rate last year to nurses and doctors’ strikes.

“The prolonged industrial action by one group of health workers after another interrupted the health system prompting a diagnosis and treatment breakdown,” Dr Ejersa said.

The arid counties of Baringo, West Pokot and Marsabit saw an outbreak of malaria where hundreds of people were hospitalised.

Data from the Health ministry shows that 733 cases were reported in Marsabit, Lamu, Turkana, Baringo, West Pokot and Kakuma refugee camp — where 438 people tested positive for the disease.

READ: Why Kenya isn't fully winning the malaria war

Reduced funding for anti-malaria campaigns has also been blamed for the reversal of gains realised over the years.

Research conducted by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) initiative on funding requirements revealed that Kenya will need about $427,860,536 (Sh42.8 billion) between 2018 and 2020 to fight the disease yet the money is not readily available.

The Health ministry said that it needs about Sh54 billion every three years to fight malaria yet it is allocated Sh27 billion from the global fund, USAid and the government.

Experts said that increased funding is fundamental to sustaing the war on the disease. Dr Ejersa said that despite the funding shortfall, the ministry will proceed with a host of other initiatives including the introduction of the Malaria RTS, S vaccine starting October this year.

“The injectable vaccine will be administered to an estimated 240,000 children aged between five and 17 months in the endemic lake region,” said Dr Ejersa.

He added that the ministry had have distributed 14 million nets across 23 counties in 2017 and 2018.

“Most of the money we get goes to the distribution of treated bed nets, medicine and diagnostics. We also use a large chunk of the money for advocacy and social mobilisation,” he said.

Dr Ejersa said that they were also devising a plan to collect the nets after three years of use.