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Medicine Crisis Hampers War on Malaria
- Details
- Published on Saturday, 07 July 2007 06:36
Especially in short supply is the crucial drug quinine, the backbone of the ministry's fight against the killer tropical disease, which has reportedly claimed more than 1,000 lives, most of them in the district of Kisii.
The government claims about 700 people have died so far.
A ministry report obtained by The East African says: "The Central Supplies Unit in Nairobi has issued out all its quinine stocks, and other anti-malaria drugs such as sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (metakelfin) are fast running out."
The report adds that the Ministry of Health had put in place large stocks of the drugs in 15 epidemic-prone districts, including North-Eastern, by the end of April 1999, but these have now been exhausted due to the unusually severe outbreak this year.
Ministry officials are making efforts to procure new supplies to combat the epidemic, which has reportedly affected close to 200,000 people.
According to data obtained by The East African, the government had distributed anti-malarials, including quinine, sulphadoxine/pyrimethamine and amodiaquine, worth Ksh1.2 million ($17,000) to Kisii by April 26, a week before the current epidemic broke out.
Other districts which received substantial supplies of the drugs were Gucha ($21,000) Nyamira ($10,000), Uasin Gishu ($14,000), Kericho ($15,000) and Bomet ($15,000).
In total, the government positioned over 130,000 doses of quinine in risk districts by April, leaving some 73,000 doses in stock at the Central Supplies Unit.
The drugs were worth about $1 million and some Ksh104,014 ($1,400) was used to transport the consignments to the respective districts. Despite these efforts, another report by Kenya's National Malaria Control Programme on the current epidemic says that "patients seeking care far exceed available physical facilities and staffing capacity, and drugs and non-pharmaceutical supplies are running short."
According to the programme, daily admissions at the Kisii District Hospital alone now exceed 80 patients per day, with a death rate of between four to five people. Literally all the patients admitted require quinine therapy under emergency conditions.
The programme is reportedly drawing up plans to seek urgent donor funding to enable it purchase more drugs, and also to implement vector control strategies.
In a bid to alleviate the personnel problem, the government has deployed Kenya army medical staff, including 15 nurses, to Kisii, Nyamira, Gucha and Transmara.
The handling of the current epidemic has sparked off a heated political debate, with critics accusing the government of foot dragging.
Critics of the government are increasingly reading political motives in the government's response to the crisis, saying that this has been slow because a significant section of the Kisii community supports the opposition.
Last Tuesday, the member of parliament for West Mugirango, Mr. Henry Obwocha launched a broadside at the Ministry of Health, accusing it of discharging some patients and moving others from the crowded Kisii District Hospital ahead a presidential visit to give the impression that the crisis was under control.
Other opposition politicians are alleging that health authorities' failure to control the epidemic is meant to punish the Kisii community for the intransigence of former finance minister Simeon Nyachae, who resigned from the Moi government in a huff early this year.But the Minister for Health, Mr. Jackson Kalweo and the director of medical services, Prof. Julius Meme, last Wednesday refuted the allegations, saying that the government was doing all it could, and had achieved significant progress.
Health Permanent Secretary Philemon Mwaisaka simply described the allegations as "foolish and unreasonable."
According to Prof Meme, self-medication and a tendency by residents of the affected areas to seek cheap medical care from illegal clinics and traditional healers is partly to blame for the epidemic.
