Kenya vows to sustain investments to attain zero malaria goal by 2030

Kenya’s Ministry of Health unveiled new plans on Wednesday to eliminate malaria by 2030 by leveraging continuous investment and innovation.

According to Josephine Mburu, chief secretary in the Ministry of Health, the country is expected to attain zero malaria status in the next seven years by adopting high-impact interventions such as local finance and creative technologies.

“The Ministry of Health plans to use innovative tools such as the use of drones in larval source management in lake endemic zones,” Mburu remarked at a briefing in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, ahead of World Malaria Day which falls on April 25.

Kenya aims to deliver 18.3 million long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) in 28 selected counties next year, she disclosed.

The Kenyan official also stated that the government intends to provide one net for every two members of families in malaria-risk regions in order to minimize the country’s malaria burden.

Mburu went on to say that Kenya is still providing quick malaria diagnosis and treatment using microscopy and the use of quality-assured malaria rapid diagnostic test kits and drugs.

She said that the End Malaria Council Kenya has raised one million US dollars to combat malaria as part of local financing, while foreign support is either stagnant or diminishing in a setting of rising demands.

The World Health Organization (WHO) country representative in Kenya, Abdourahmane Diallo, commended the government for achieving great success in the fight against malaria.

Diallo praised Kenya’s efforts to reduce the malaria burden from 8% to 6% by 2020, as well as the widespread distribution of 16 million mosquito nets during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and the development of malaria quick diagnostic tests.

He stated that actions such as the formation of the End Malaria Council and Fund to mobilize resources for malaria elimination had helped to prevent fatalities from the tropical illness.

Diallo stated that by 2022, 82 percent of malaria cases and 95 percent of malaria fatalities in Africa will have been avoided, with the east and southern Africa area having the greatest rate of malaria exposure during pregnancy at 41 per cent.

He emphasized the importance of increasing efforts to regulate the growth of an invasive malaria mosquito vector detected in the northern Kenyan desert counties of Marsabit and Turkana.