New drug a boost for malaria treatment

By Mangoa Mosota

A Chinese pharmaceutical company has introduced a new malaria drug that would treat the disease in one day into the Kenyan market.

The drug, Artequick, by Artepharm Company Ltd is already retailing in chemists mostly in western Kenya.

The company product manager for Kenya, Mr James Onchwati said Artequick is the latest fourth generation of Artermisinin Combination Therapy (ACT). "It is an innovative product with many benefits. It clears malaria fever in about 20 hours. Its parasite clearance time is 36-60 hours," said Mr Onchwati, when the firm hosted more than 40 doctors from Family Aids Care and Education at a Kisumu hotel.

Clear in a day

He said Artequick was the only ACT whose dosage a patient can clear within 24 hours.

"More than 95 per cent of the parasites die within 24 hours after drug administration," added Onchwati.

In Kenya, malaria accounts for 16,000 deaths annually, with about 25 million Kenyans at a risk.

Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease, kills 880,000 people a year in Africa with most of them being children under the age of five.

About ten years ago, the World Health Organisation recommended a switch to ACT should be made in all countries. The malaria parasite had developed resistance to chloroquine.

Artermisinin and its derivatives are now standard components of malaria treatment and have proved safe.

Artepharm East African representative Henry Huang said they had carried out successful trials of the drug in several malaria-prone countries.

Drastic drop

Last week, the Government announced that the cost of malaria would drastically drop in the next two years and that ACT will cost between Sh20 and Sh40, down from the current Sh300.

Head of Malaria Division Elizabeth Juma said what the Government is spending on ACT had reduced from Sh1.2 billion two years ago to Sh640 million.

Meanwhile, medical personnel from western Kenya have called on the Government to clear ambiguities over performance contracts.

Speaking during a health seminar organised by Health Rights Forum the more than 100 clinical officers, nurses and lab technicians from public health facilities, said the current system where officer in-charge signs contracts on behalf of his/her staff was ineffective.

"We should be evaluated as individuals because each works at different levels for the patients," said a participant during the function on Friday.