Reconciling national treatment policies and drug regulation in Kenya

Abstract

Malaria is the second largest public health challenge (after HIV/AIDS) in Kenya, with an estimated 34 000 children dying from the direct effects of infection each year. It accounts for over a third of all consultations in government clinics (DOMC 2001). The typical Kenyan child will use antimalarial drugs at least four times in a year (Spencer et al.1987). Economic losses due to malaria are also large (Gallup and Sachs 2001). As matters of public policy to reduce morbidity and mortality due to malaria, the medicines to which communities resort must be safe and effective, and efforts to control malaria must complement and not contradict each other. But currently, neither of these areas is successfully addressed, due to a clear disconnect between antimalarial drug registration in Kenya and the national antimalarial drug policy.