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Kenya Bans Use Of Chloroquine
- Details
- Published on Monday, 23 July 2007 01:35
As replacements, the ministry instead recommended quinine and fansidar drugs to combat the disease.
The ban, which takes immediate effect, was announced by the assistant health minister, Basil Criticos on Friday friday when he addressed medics at the Moi University teaching and referral hospital in Eldoret, about 300 km north-west of Nairobi.
He said the number of malaria cases in Uasin-Gishu and Kisii districts had reached alarming proportions and urged the communities in the two areas to seek immediate medication whenever they detected malaria symptoms.
A total of 93 deaths have occurred at Moi hospital in Eldoret from malaria within the last one- and- a half months, the deputy minister, disclosed adding that children were the most hit as 27 of them were being admitted at the hospital daily.
The hospital's deputy director, Dr. Philip Parklea, attributed the number of dead to partial treatment given outside the hospital and delay in patients to seek treatment. He said the hospital will require 15,000 fansidar and 10,000 quinine injections monthly to combat the disease.
The hospital received 4,106 patients in June and 1,670 in July suffering from malaria.
However, the number had dropped drastically after launching anti-malaria campaigns in the area using medical teams, Parklea said.
The hospital was currently receiving 30-40 malaria patients daily, compared with 200 patients who were being admitted daily a few months ago.
Another medic, Dr. Nyamongo who had accompanied the deputy minister said 80 percent of the patients had proved resistant to chloroquine, which had proved incapable of fighting the highland malaria strain of the disease.
He said the highland strain was spreading to other part so the country and called for concerted efforts to curb the spread.
