A new combination drug with fewer chances of developing resistance to malarial parasites has been developed.

Known as Lap Dap, it is a product of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) and Wellcome Trust Research Laboratories, a Kemri official has said.

The drug was recently recommended for manufacture by the World Health Organisation. 

Dr Nobert Peshu of the Kemri Centre for Geographic Medicine Research's Kilifi

Unit said the product, developed more than two years ago, had been sent to 

WHO for testing and approval before being recommended for manufacture.

He was addressing the Africa Malaria Day celebrations at Matsangoni Dispensary in Bahari Division.

Dr Peshu said Lap Dap would be a vital tool in Africa for treating

Fancidar-resistant parasites when it finally comes into the market.

WHO last month announced the drug had been tested and approved for 
manufacture by SmithKline Beecham of Great Britain and might be in the market by early next year.

Dr Peshu said Kemri had played a central role in establishing resistance patterns to chloroquine, resulting in the Government's policy shift from chloroquine as a first line treatment for malaria.

Dr Peshu said the Institute which had been involved in medicinal research in the
Coast region for more than 10 years has also developed technologies for
predicting anti-malarial failure or success, that are proving useful in formulation of measures to curb drug resistance.

The medic expressed concern that malaria was killing many children under the age
of 5 in Kilifi District and said that the only solution to reduce the deaths was
 for the residents to co-operate with health workers in their areas.

Dr Peshu said that the Institute had started the training of rural shopkeepers
to offer advice on the use of over-the-counter drugs as research had shown that
between 71-86 per cent of children given antimalarial drugs at home for fever
were given an incorrect dose.

The Kilifi District Medical-Officer-of-Health Dr Samuel Were said the day is
recognized throughout African continent with an aim of informing communities
about prevention, treatment and mobilize them to take action against the killer
disease that is treatable and preventable.

He said that malaria globally kills more than one million people, majority of
whom are children each year, 3,000 daily and about 300 million suffer from the
disease annually.

Dr Were said an estimated 26,000 children who are 72 per day die of malaria and
one in every 40 seconds while the disease in pregnancy is wide spread and
endangered the health of women and prospects of the newborn.

In Kenya he said, Malaria disease is a debilitating, affecting millions of people annually adding that 30 per cent of all outpatients attendance and 19 per cent of all admissions to health facilities in the country.

The MOH said an estimated 170 million working days are lost to the disease each
year as the economy in general and the health sector in particular is heavily
burdened by the cost of drugs and treatment coupled with the rapid development
of drug resistance against malaria parasite leading to the abandonment of
chloroquine as first line treatment.

Expressing concern that research conducted by Kemri in 1996 had shown that
malaria was the major contributing factor to Maternal Anemia and child mortality
 in the area, Dr Were said that currently the disease was the number one cause of
morbidity accounting for over 35 per cent of outpatients attendance and 21 per
cent of admissions at the Kilifi District Hospital.

Noting that malaria affected the poor most during the rainy season and
harvesting time resulting in massive economic loss, he said several steps have
been taken to address the problem through training of health workers both in
government and in private sector in order to recognize and appropriately treat
the disease.

The medic said that the ministry of health had established 26 Insecticide
Treated Nets outlets in all the Rural Health Facilities where communities have
access to the bed nets and pretreatment services.

He said adequate supply of effective antimalarials is currently available in all
the government health facilities and shopkeepers training on the management of
fever in children going in the district.

Dr Were said that the recently launched national malaria strategy for the period
2001-2010 emphasized on the use of Insecticide Treated Nets for children under 5
years and expectant mothers as one way of the vector control.

He also said that prompt provision of effective treatment of malaria with SP
drugs other than chloroquine and management of the disease and anemia in
pregnancy would be emphasized by the health workers in their areas.

The MOH announced that the Unicef had donated 2,000 Insecticide Treated Nets to the District to be distributed to all health facilities to be given to pregnant
mothers in the area and some of the were issued during the celebrations.

The guest of honor, the D:O: for Bahari Division Mr Abdullahi Abbas who
represented the Kilifi DC Mr Oku Kaunya challenged the Kemri, AMREF and the
ministry of health to work together to find ways and means of controlling the
spread of malaria which is prone in the district.

Mr Abbas also appealed to manufacturers of Mosquito Nets to reduce the prices of
their nets to enable many people to buy them for protection from the disease.

An official from AMREF, Ms Sylivia Chidodo said that her organization would
co-operate with the ministry of health and Kemri in the fight against malaria in
 the Coast region.