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3.4 million bednets distributed
Two long lines snake away from the one-room health clinic across the stunted grass towards the brown expanse of Lake Victoria. A constant cacophony of children's sobs rise from the cluster of bodies where the two lines met, pierced occasionally by a sharp wail. But instead of the harried looks that they might wear were this an epidemic or other crisis, the handful of health workers manning the tables in front of the clinic are calm, some are even smiling.
"This is the most exciting thing I have seen in my career," says Dr. Mary Hamel, a malaria expert stationed at the local research center of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This scene, which at this moment is replicated at 1,700
clinics and community centers throughout Kenya, is the heart of a massive effort to control two of the greatest killers of the country's children: malaria and measles. The crowds of children visiting these sites are provided with a capsule of vitamin A to boost their general nutrition and immune systems and an injection of measles vaccine - the cause of the shrieks and cries. Previous such campaigns succeeded in reaching 97 percent of children in need and dramatically reducing the number of measles cases. This year, for the first time, the children are receiving a third essential health intervention: a long
lasting insecticide-treated bed net, which can protect them from malaria infection for up to five years.
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