The first ever intervention for seasonal transmission of malaria among young children has helped reduce malaria cases in Turkana Central sub county by 70 percent.
The first round of the seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) was conducted in the sub county between June-October 2024 targeting children between 3 and 59 months.
The project was implemented in five cycles of therapeutic anti-malarial drug provision campaigns through door-to-door visits, fixed point, and integrated outreach to enhance coverage.
The key partners involved were the national malaria control program, the county government of Turkana, Catholic relief services, Moi University and Duke global health as the implementing partners of the three-year SMC pilot program.
The stakeholders on Friday converged in Lodwar for an SMC county dissemination meeting to share the results of the first round of evaluation with ministry of health and key government stakeholders.
The participants discussed operational achievements and challenges of the pilot programme.
Recently, the world health organisation revised its guidelines on the use of antimalarial medicine and recommends that areas with highly seasonal transmission and high burden of malaria in young children should be considered for seasonal malaria chemoprevention.
Deputy governor Dr John Erus underscored the need to invest in malaria prevention than treatment.
“The cost of investing in seasonal malaria chemoprevention is far less than treating malaria,” said Dr Erus.
In addition to reducing cost of treatment, the deputy governor said SMC was also helping reduce deaths caused by malaria.
County executive Committee member for health Dr Joseph Epem said malaria prevalence in the county stands at 39 percent way above the six percent national prevalence.
“Malaria accounts for 30 percent of admissions in hospitals in the county and it is also the leading cause of illnesses in the county,” said Dr Epem.
He added that there is need to expand the children targeted under SMC to include children aged 5-9 years.
The national director in charge of primary health care Dr Joseph Lenai said the national government will continue providing technical support to the County Governments and resource mobilisation.
He further committed to scale up the program to other sub counties and other parts of the country saying SMC had proved to be a successful strategy in combating malaria.
“Seasonal malaria chemoprevention embraces an all-society approach in malaria prevention and it is the way to go,” said Lenai.
Turkana Central deputy county commissioner Thomas Siele said the national government administration office will focus on dissemination of information on the importance of SMC.
“NGAO will also ensure safety of staff involved in the programme as they reach out to the communities even in the far-flung areas,” said the DCC.
Catholic relief services, health, nutrition and social services sector lead Dr Edwin Mbugua called for the development of the national SMC guidelines.
He said SMC had proved that it can reduce disease and economic burden on Kenyans.
“Catholic relief services is committed to support government to generate evidence on SMC, the evidence should be used to advocate for more resources so that the programme can be scaled up to the whole country,” said Dr Mbugua.
Professor Wendy Omerara from Duke global health institute and principal investigator emphasised the role of community health promoters in the programme.
The forum also shared insights into community informed SMC, and priority areas including age expansion and digitisation of the reporting tools.
In attendance were participants from Nigeria, Guinea and senior health officials from national and county government.
By Peter Gitonga