"This is an example of the failure of the system," says Louis da Gama, one of the few activists in the world focusing on the challenge of malaria. "None of these children should have severe malaria. They should be protected by bed nets or receive effective treatment in their villages. The campaign launched today and other efforts financed by the Global Fund will bring Kenya much closer to that reality."
It was the exceptional rate of malaria in this province, high not only for Kenya but all of Africa, which led the CDC to select it as the primary site for its research on the disease. As a result, seminal studies proving the effectiveness of bed nets in preventing malaria were conducted here, including some which found that the nets offered protection not only to the children sleeping under them, but also those in neighboring homes. But until now, only the lucky few who participated in these studies have had access to that protection.
Two recent developments have caused the situation to change dramatically. The first was the invention of the long lasting net technology, which integrates the insecticides into the fiber of the net so that they gain rather than lose potency when washed. Previously, any effort to distribute nets would need to include a complex plan to revisit households each year to retreat them with insecticides. With the long lasting versions, campaigns such as this one only need to be held every several years to effectively protect most children.
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