In this ward at Nightingale Hospital in Kisumu, malaria patients are bedridden. Access to treatment remains a problem, with public hospitals often struggling with drug shortages and private facilities charging exorbitant fees for care.
Wilson Otieno was admitted to hospital three times for malaria and underwent outpatient treatment countless times.
It's expensive for the 33-year-old accountant and father in the lakeside city of Kisumu.
He says many patients opt for private treatment.
“In major cases, people choose to go to private facilities where they can get faster medicine and quality medicine, but it's never pocket-friendly.” says Ogola.
Lenser Pauline regularly brings her young daughter to the hospital for malaria treatment.
“It's very expensive to treat it continuously, monthly, it's very expensive, some of us come from far away, it's far from the hospital and we have to use transport” she says.
Oswal Omondi, a doctor at the hospital, highlights the frustration faced by both health workers and patients due to the unavailability and high cost of medicines.
“As a healthcare professional, you would like to give the first-line drug, which is artesunate, but because it is unavailable or too expensive for the population, we usually prescribe the drug, but the patients do not receive it. pharmacy either because of unavailability or because of the price,” says Omondi.
The impact of malaria transcends societal boundaries and claims lives across different demographics.
In Siaya, 60 kilometers from Kisumu, Humphrey Kizito Otieno, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) mortality monitoring field officer, visits the grave of a family member.
He is haunted by the memory of losing both his parents and six siblings to malaria.
He says cultural beliefs are partly to blame for delays in seeking treatment.
“Families believe so much in witchcraft, you find out someone has malaria, the symptoms are obvious, but then the family would think their child has been bewitched, so instead of looking for medicine, the right medicine, they look for alternative treatments, like visiting religious people, before you know it, this parasite has grown up and overpowered that person.”
Some progress has been made with local production of key medicines.
Kenya-based Universal Corporation Limited received World Health Organization approval last year to manufacture a key antimalarial drug known as sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine plus amodiaquine, or Spaq.
It was an important step in Africa's ability to produce life-saving medicines, a new focus for governments and public health officials after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities. Africa is heavily dependent on drug imports.
“It's really going to help reduce import dependency, as we've seen during the COVID era, when anything that was imported actually had huge supply shortages, and malaria is such a thing that if you don't get the right medicine at the right time, we all know that it can cause unnecessary deaths,” says Palu Dhanani, founder and chief executive of UCL.
Michael Mungoma, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Mount Kenya University, emphasizes the urgent need for increased investment in addressing diseases affecting low- and middle-income countries.
“If we get more investment in the production of drugs and essential drugs, including antimalarials, where there is a problem, then we are likely to be more effective in solving the problem instead of relying heavily on drug imports. Africa is highly import dependent.” from India and China and that is not sustainable.”
Even after parts of Kenya participated in an important pilot project of the world's first malaria vaccine, with a reported decrease in deaths among children under 5, the disease remains a significant public health problem.
Kenya's health ministry has not said when the vaccine will be widely available, but as the East African nation joins the rest of the world in marking World Malaria Day on April 25, hope is on the horizon.