Alert over low grade malaria drugs

Daily Nation | January 4, 2009

Kenya is now a free-for-all market for malaria drugs with more than 113 brands from 20 countries being sold.

Of these, more than half are not registered, a similar number are of poor quality and most are not recommended in the country, according to the Ministry of Health.

The ministry blames local drug manufacturers and those who import the medicines from India as the most notorious in flouting national malaria guidelines as they flood the market with inappropriate and low quality drugs, which include chroloquine and SPs (sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine) whose use was discontinued years ago.

The revelations come at a time when the country is experiencing a near total breakdown in the anti-malarials supply chain. Two weeks ago, the Nation reported that the country faced an imminent stockout of first line malaria medicines, AL or artemether-lumefantrine.

While admitting serious delivery problems, the acting director of Public Health and Sanitation, Dr Swaleh Sharif, said there were enough drugs until expected imports arrive.

The first consignment of about 400,000 doses of the expected eight million doses of AL arrived last week, but these are hardly enough for a month.
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