News Article
Original Article
HEADLINE: Malaria Deaths On the Increase
BYLINE: Panafrican News Agency - September 13, 2000
LOCATION: Nairobi, Kenya
Malaria remains the leading cause of child
mortality in Kenya, killing an average of 72 children daily, participants at an
on-going health workshop heard Tuesday.
According to the inter-country workshop on community-based malaria
interventions, the tropical disease claims the lives of 26,000 Kenyan children
every year. The disease accounts for between 30-50 percent of the overall
infant mortality in the country.
James Sekento of the malaria control programme in the Kenyan health
ministry said pregnant women were at risk of suffering high anaemia and
giving birth to low weight babies because of the disease.
"It is estimated that over 6,000 pregnant women develop severe
malaria-induced anaemia each year in Kenya," he revealed.
Sekento said an estimated 8.5 million Kenyans are at risk of contacting
malaria, and called for greater investment in research aimed at curbing the
disease.
He lamented that the disease had impacted negatively on the country's
economy, saying 3 percent of national gross domestic product is lost
through decreased output and management costs.
"Malaria has continued to cripple economic productivity through deaths,
absenteeism from work and inability to raise output at work," he pointed out.
The ministry's permanent secretary, Julius Meme, said increased resistance
of the malaria parasite to commonly affordable drugs has worsened the
situation.
He advised on the wider use of insecticide-treated bed nets, prompt
recognition, and effective treatment of the disease, proper environmental
management and personal protection from mosquito bites.
News Briefs On East Africa
Malaria Kills 72 Children a Day
OriginaL
BYLINE: UN Integrated Regional Information Network
DATELINE: September 14, 2000
KENYA: Malaria kills 72 children a day
Malaria is the leading cause of death among
children in Kenya, according to findings presented during an inter-country
workshop on community-based malaria interventions on Monday.
Participants were told that the disease kills 26,000 Kenyan children a year,
or an average of 72 a day, according to a report on the workshop carried by
the Kenyan newspaper, the 'East African Standard', on 12 September.
Moreover, malaria accounts for 30 to 50 percent of the country's overall
infant mortality, it said. The report quoted James Sekento of the Malaria
Control Programme as saying that pregnant women risked suffering severe
anaemia and giving birth to underweight babies because of malaria.
.
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