Africa: Child Malaria Deaths Slashed By Rainy Season Regimen allafrica.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from allafrica.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The three had recently studied the prevalence of birth defects in Kiambu County for a five-year period from 2014 to 2018.
Their report appears this month (December) in the Pan African Medical Journal and tells of an unfolding “silent epidemic.”
The team had analysed records of all children born with physical abnormalities in 13 sub-country hospitals in Kiambu.
The sampled sub-county hospitals included Kihara, Karuri, Wangige, Nyathuna, Lari-Rukuma, Ruiru, Tigoni, Lussigetti, Kigumo and Igegania plus the three county referral hospitals of Kiambu, Thika and Gatundu.
Overall, the study found a year-to-year increase of children being born with physical abnormalities in the county.
“There was a steady annual increase in the prevalence estimates of various physical defects in children during the study period,” wrote the authors.
THE STANDARD By
Standard Team |
December 25th 2020 at 00:00:00 GMT +0300
President Uhuru Kenyatta during the unveiling of the Presidential Declaration for the conservation of the iconic fig tree along Waiyaki Way in Nairobi County. [PSCU]
It has been a difficult year and as the sun sets on 2020, it is easy to overlook the positives that have happened in the middle of one of the worst times in human history. But there have been silver linings in the dark cloud of a difficult year.
One of the most notable positives has been the acceleration of digital payments system in the country. Although Kenya has always been miles ahead of the world with regard to mobile payments system, the coronavirus pandemic accelerated the use of various mobile platforms to slow down the spread of the virus by minimising handling of hard currencies.
Giving antimalarial medicines to children during the rainy season reduces malaria deaths
Giving antimalarial medicines to children monthly during the rainy season cut malaria deaths in children by 42 per cent, making a case for wide implementation in malaria-endemic African regions, a study found.
In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidelines for implementing intermittent monthly drug administration, also known as Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC), in areas of high transmission that occurs during particular seasons to help prevent malaria in children under five years old.
Malaria killed 643,000 people globally in 2019 and more than half of these were children under five, with the majority of the deaths occurring in West and Central Africa, according to a press release on the study.
Child malaria deaths ‘slashed by rainy season regimen’
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The intervention cut malaria deaths in children under five by about 42 per cent
The roll-out faces challenges such as finding displaced children, expert says
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