By Linah Benyawa
The fight against malaria in the Coast Province has received a boost after the Government introduced testing kits to enhance diagnosis.
Officials speaking in Mombasa yesterday disclosed that all districts in the province have been supplied with the kits and personnel trained on how to use them.
Provincial Malaria Control Co-ordinator Mohammed Hanif said the Government has disbursed about 7.6 million Rapid Diagnostic Tests that would ensure that one is treated specifically for malaria.
Coast Province, the Lake Basin, and North Eastern Province are the most affected by the disease.
Proper diagnosis
Coast Province has a malaria prevalence of four per cent of its population, annually, being a leading cause of infant mortality, according to a data from the Medical Services Ministry.
Dr Hanif said there are many cases where patients are misdiagnosed for malaria whenever they develop a fever.?
“Fever used to be equated with malaria which is very wrong. The kits would help doctors and clinical officers have proper diagnosis as opposed to times when anyone with fever was being treated for malaria,” he said.
Dr Hanif told The Standard that so far, the ministry has trained 320 health workers in the province on how to use the kits.
?“The kits will make work easier for the health workers since they are effective and accurate and a patient would now be given the exact treatment,” he added.
The most vulnerable
?The kits have already been distributed to dispensaries and other health centers in the Coast province.
“The RDT kits will give a true picture of the malaria prevalence rate of the entire region which is positive since it would help us in the fight against the disease. We will know the number of cases that are yet to be tackled,” he said.
Nearly 28 million Kenyans live in malaria prone areas, a majority of them being children under the age of five years.
