"The second critical development was the availability of financing from the Global Fund. Even at the relatively small cost of $5, the nets and the work needed to deliver them were beyond the means of the cash-strapped Kenyan government. Today, with two malaria grants from the Global Fund totaling $92 million over two years, Kenya is able to not only launch the bed net campaign, but also increase a range of other essential malaria services. Chief among those is the delivery of the most effective medications available to treat malaria, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). Medications which Kenyans have used for decades now fail to cure the disease as much as 70 percent of the time. While the more effective ACTs have been on the market for years, the high cost of the drug - as much as 35 times higher than commonly used chloroquine - prevented Kenya from making the switch until Global Fund grant money became available. At the time of the campaign launch, the first several million doses were being delivered and were expected to be in clinics throughout the country by the end of the month.
There are still many challenges for Kenya to overcome before it defeats this ancient scourge. The start of the campaign was postponed for months due to delays in the procurement of the nets. Such delays must be ironed out for the ongoing purchases of ACT medications to ensure clinics do not go empty and children untreated.
But while there is still a long road ahead, Kenya's first major counterthrust against malaria in more than three decades is generating excitement and hope visible on the faces of those gathered for the campaign launch.
One mother beamed as she and her four bed net-toting children began the two hour walk home. "I have been lucky that I have not lost a child because of malaria," she said. "But they have been sick many times. Now I don't have to worry about that anymore."
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