4月22日導讀;
[本日voa聽抄音頻時光為:03分59秒]
Fatuma Chaunga, a mother of two,lives in the coastalregion of Likoni in Mombasa.Two years ago, most ofChaunga's income from selling french fries and deep-fried buns was spent on hospital bills to treatmalaria.
Mombasa is a malaria-prone region. More than 60percent of the population is at risk of malaria inKenya, where almost 36,000 children die from the disease each year.
A non-governmental organization called "Population Services Kenya" distributes insecticide-treated bed nets to pregnant mothers and mothers with children under one year old.Chaungawas one of the beneficiaries.
“If I do not use the net, my children will get malaria, and I will have to go to hospital or useherbal medicine.That is before I knew of MRDT. Now that I know of it, I see the importance ofusing the net so as to save on costs of going for treatment and use the little money I have tosustain my family.”
The MRDT that Chaunga mentions is the Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test. In 2010, the WorldHealth Organization recommended every suspected malaria case be confirmed byparasitological testing. PS Kenya provides the test to more than 4,000 public health facilities.
The MRDT gives results in 20 minutes and costs 1, which is affordable even in ruralcommunities.
Dr.Dismas Osoro said it has helped reduce the abuse of antibiotics.
“Because earlier people were just taking anti-malarials without a test. This time we have got theimportance of it. We test and dispense anti-malarials, so the reckless use of anti-malarial drugshas been controlled.”
The World Health Organization estimates there were 198 million cases of malaria in 2013, whichled to 584,000 deaths world-wide,most of them in Africa among children under the age of five.
That makes mosquito-net distribution in malaria-endemic regions crucial.
But,according to PS Kenya regional programs coordinator James Makiri, the biggest challengeis changing mindsets.
“People tend to sleep under the net during the rainy season. But during the dry season, whenit is hot, they do not sleep under net because it is too hot. So what we are trying to do isencourage people to sleep under net every time of the year.”
For 30 years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has collaborated with theKenya Medical Research Institute to fight malaria. This collaboration is developing a vaccinebeing tested on 16,000 children.
Professor Francis Kimani said the results have been promising-but it's only part of a multi-pronged effort.
“We are coming up with newer vector control methods. We are coming up with new drugs. Weare monitoring the drugs that are in use to make sure that they work well and users use themwell.And also, we are coming up with newer strategies to protect the host. And when you do allthose things in an integrated fashion we are hoping that at the end of the day we will winagainst Malaria.”
Chaunga said she hopes that more and more people will embrace mosquito nets and embracemodern methods of testing for malaria-further bringing down mortality rates that WHO saysare at 47 percent globally and 54 percent in Africa.
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