A malaria epidemic in Kenya's western and Rift Valley regions has killed more than 200 people during the past two weeks and thousands are suffering from the disease, a senior health ministry official said today.
"There has been a massive death toll along Kenya's malaria belts in Nyanza and parts of Rift Valley provinces in the past two weeks, but the government has intervened to offer free medical services," Director of Medical Services Richard Muga said.
Mr Muga said the government would deliver free drugs to hospitals in the affected areas. "The long rains that have been pounding the western region of the country and high temperatures that followed are to blame for the upsurge in the spread of highland malaria infections," said Mr Muga.
The malaria-hit areas were devastated by floods during heavy rains in April and May. The flooding claimed the lives of 72 around the country.
Medical staff currently on leave have been asked to return to work in hospitals in Nyanza and Rift Valley provinces to help deal with the mosquito-spread disease.
"The government decided to temporarily suspend its cost-sharing policy only in areas hit by the outbreak and offer free medication until the phenomenon is absolutely reversed," said Mr Muga.
Under the "cost-sharing" arrangement, patients seeking treatment in government-run health facilities have to pay part of the medical bill.
Hospitals in some of the worst-hit areas were struggling to cope with in-patients having to share beds and others lying on the floor.
Mr Muga said the situation was being aggravated by a tendency by people in some of the affected areas to seek treatment from "quacks" or unqualified medical practitioners.
A malaria outbreak in the western Kisii and Kericho districts in February 1998 claimed the lives of 200. That epidemic followed floods caused by the El Nino weather pattern.
Ninety per cent of the estimated 2.7 million deaths caused by malaria around the world annually occur in Africa and the majority of them are children under the age of five, according to official figures.
AFP