Establish why drugs aren’t working urgently

Health authorities must move with speed to establish reasons for the rising cases of resistance to commonly used drugs by patients across the country.

Several studies have conclusively established that patients are developing resistance to drugs commonly used to treat malaria, HIV and pneumonia. In June, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) declared that the number one malaria treatment based on the compound artemisinin had lost its efficacy.

Similarly, samples collected from clinics in Kisumu, Kisii, Migori and Homa Bay showed pneumonia strains that were resistant to all common available medicines. To aggravate the problem, the charity group MSF (Doctors Without Borders) raised the alarm over high levels of HIV treatment failure among patients in its facilities in Kenya.

This was corroborated by a study conducted by the Ministry of Health which reported the emergence of totally untreatable HIV patients in Kenya. The 2017 Economic Survey shows that pneumonia, malaria, cancer and HIV are the top killer diseases in the country, accounting for 32.9 per cent of all reported deaths in 2016.

Clearly, there is no time to waste in establishing why resistance levels are rising to drugs that treat these diseases. As the short term measure, a task force could be formed to seek answers to this question as well as develop sustainable treatment mechanisms. In the longer term, however, we must begin to put emphasis on preventing rather than treating disease. For now, health authorities must act quickly to limit malaria and HIV deaths.