Kenya bans sulphur-based malaria drugs

Kenya's government has announced the phasing out of the use of sulphur-based drugs for treating malaria, effective from mid-May this year. James Nyikal, the government's Director of Medical Services, told the AllAfrica newspaper that more effective artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) is more effective against the mosquito-carried disease. Dr Nyikal confirmed that the drugs would be available at government health facilities free of charge for patients.

Announcing the change of treatment policy, Dr Nyikal explained that the sulphur-based drugs, including Fansidar (pyrimethamine sulfadoxine) and Metakelfin (sulphalene-pyrimethamine), have been in use for two years, but the disease has developed resistance to them.

The Kenyan government has allocated 1.5 billion shillings ($21.1 million) to health funds for the ACT drugs. A further 150.0 million shillings will be spent on training more than 10,000 health care workers on the proper use of ACT drugs. Dr Nyikal expressed concern that the program could face financial difficulties due to funding problems with the Geneva, Switzerland-headquartered Global Fund.