Kenya vows to sustain investments to attain zero malaria goal by 2030

NAIROBI, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Ministry of Health on Wednesday announced new strategies that harness sustained funding and innovations in order to eliminate malaria by 2030.

Josephine Mburu, principal secretary in the Ministry of Health, said that by implementing high-impact interventions such as domestic financing and novel innovations, the country is likely to achieve zero malaria status in the next seven years.

"The Ministry of Health plans to use innovative tools such as the use of drones in larval source management in lake endemic zones," Mburu remarked at a briefing in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, ahead of World Malaria Day which falls on April 25.

She revealed that Kenya plans to distribute 18.3 million long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) in 28 targeted counties next year.

The Kenyan official also said that the government aims to ensure households in malaria-risk areas have one net for every two members as a way to reduce the burden of malaria in the country.

Mburu added that Kenya is continuing to provide prompt malaria diagnosis and treatment through microscopy and the use of quality-assured malaria rapid diagnostic test kits and medicines.

She disclosed that the End Malaria Council Kenya has mobilized 1 million U.S. dollars toward the fight against malaria as part of domestic funding since external funding is either stagnating or declining in an environment of increasing needs.

Abdourahmane Diallo, the World Health Organization (WHO) country representative in Kenya, lauded the government for making significant progress in the fight against malaria.

Diallo commended Kenya's effort in reducing the malaria burden from 8 percent to 6 percent in 2020, the mass distribution of 16 million mosquito nets during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, and the development of malaria rapid diagnostic tests.

He said that interventions that include the establishment of the End Malaria Council and Fund to mobilize resources for malaria elimination have helped avert deaths caused by the tropical disease.

Diallo noted that 82 percent of cases of malaria and 95 percent of deaths as a result of the disease were averted in Africa in 2022, adding that the east and southern Africa region has the highest prevalence of exposure to malaria during pregnancy at 41 percent.

He stressed that more efforts are needed to manage the emergence of an invasive malaria mosquito vector that was discovered in the northern Kenyan arid counties of Marsabit and Turkana.