Education

HIV/AIDS, Malaria compete for space in African peoples' lives

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Published on Monday, 01 September 2008 05:52

The rains pounding Kisii, Nyamira and Gucha districts are a blessing as well as a curse to residents. Here, people are happy because a bumper harvest is in the offing.  But they are cursing the weather in equal measure because in a few weeks, an outbreak of malaria is almost certain.

Indeed, medical authorities have sent out an alert over a possible upsurge of the disease. They are asking residents to be wary because all health resources are being concentrated on the war against HIV/Aids. There is no room or drugs in the local hospitals to handle an outbreak of malaria, they concede.

A survey carried out by Panorama last week established a worrisome situation. The Kisii Level Five Hospital, for example, is the referral facility for 22 other neighbouring sub district hospitals. Here, HIV/Aids patients occupy 40 per cent of the 376 beds. Dr Geoffrey Otomu, the hospital medical superintendent, says the hospital makes an average of 60 admissions per day out of which 40 are HIV/Aids patients.  Although malaria is more lethal and kills faster than HIV/Aids, less attention is being paid to the disease, he says.

So far, the medic says, the highest cases of malaria recorded at the hospital were 461 in the 18th week of this year compared to 600 cases recorded last year in the 14th week. This, he says, is because there aren’t enough beds to be occupied by malaria patients. Most rural health facilities in this area and elsewhere in the country lack capacity to tackle an avalanche of deadly malaria outbreak. "We can only fight malaria effectively by strengthening rural health facilities," said Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, the Public Health minister, when he toured the hospital recently.

But the escalation of the HIV/Aids pandemic has rendered rural health facilities and the district hospitals ineffective in managing malaria. Otomu says there is continued shift from offering curative services for tackling malaria, anaemia, bronchitis, pneumonia and TB to controlling and managing HIV/Aids although malaria remains the leading killer disease among communities in Kisii.

A report by the Kisii District Development Committee says Kisii Level Five Hospital faces an acute congestion. But change of focus is not isolated to Kisii alone. Around the country, billions of shillings meant for preventive and curative services for other diseases have been re-allocated to combat HIV/Aids, which kills its victims by exposing them to opportunistic diseases. It is estimated that HIV/Aids kills 700 Kenyans daily.

Kenya, like many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, has to make tough choices on the face of an explosive HIV/Aids crisis and the recurring malaria and typhoid outbreaks, especially in Kisii highlands and other regions.