Bid to cut Kala Azar treatment period, cost

By Osinde Obare

Medical experts are developing affordable drugs that will shorten the duration of treatment Kala Azar – a disease that threatens 60 per cent of pastoralists in Pokot County.

Kala Azar is a parasitic fever mostly affecting the pastoralist community.

Dr Robert Kimutai from Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiatives (DNDI) said the research, if successful, would reduce the treatment cost and period of the disease from 17 days to 11 days.

He said the research was being conducted at the Kala Azar Special Centre in Baringo.

Dr Kimutai said the current cost of treating Kala Azar of Sh6,000 is unaffordable to many pastoralists who are mainly affected by the disease and expressed optimism that the experiments will be positive.

“We want to shorten the treatment of the disease from the current 17 to 11 day.  This will eventually reduce the cost incurred by patients,” he said.

Dr Kimutai was speaking in Kacheliba when Medecines Sans Frontiers handed over the facility to DNDI.

He said his organisation would work with the Ministry of Medical Services to identify treatment gaps.

Kimutai said the organisation is conducting research on preventive measures and effective drugs for neglected diseases in Africa and other parts of the world to also include sleeping sickness.

Through injections

“We are yet to develop a vaccine to treat Kala Azar, but we only treat through injections and the cost is challenging,” observed Kimutai.

MSF said that it has trained 100 social workers and nurses on procedures of handling Kala Azar patients since it started the treatment project in 2006. In the last six years, the organisation has funded Kala Azar treatment cases in the West Pokot, Turkana counties and Amudat district in Uganda.

Director of Medical Services Rift Valley, Dr James Osore, said that the Government is working with private institutions to make Kala Azar treatment affordable.