Reckitt East Africa, Mortein Doom maker has partnered with Naivas Supermarket to ride on big data to create Malaria awareness in the country.
The two firms are leveraging smartphones to mine data and improve the flow of quality and timely data across different levels of health systems.
"Use of innovative mobile technologies to track outbreaks of malaria, movement of people and mosquito patterns coupled with strategic partnerships between government and stakeholders can help win the fight to end malaria,” Reckitt East Africa general manager Asif Hashimi said.
Hashimi said that both public and private players need to rapidly accelerate the use of every available tool to control the spread of malaria including the use of treated mosquito nets, sprays, and electric mosquito repellents to ultimately eradicate malaria.
He added that digital platforms for sharing data via a mobile ecosystem will help malaria actors and stakeholders monitor the spread of malaria infection disease and subsequently identify the “hot spots” of malaria outbreaks and know how to respond.
“Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) will be vital in ending malaria, with governments creating an enabling environment and policy framework that will encourage innovation while the private sector drives the necessary technology key to the campaign,” Hashimi said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), Kenya has an estimated 3.5 million new clinical cases and 10,700 deaths each year, with those living in western Kenya having a high risk of malaria.
In 2020, there were an estimated 241 million cases of malaria worldwide.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) 2021 report on malaria shows that sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected accounting for about 95 per cent of all cases and 96 percent of all deaths in 2020 globally.
Close to 80 per cent of deaths in the region are among children under the age of five.
Malaria.org shows that a long-term global commitment to innovate and scale up delivery of proven tools has helped the global community to save 10.6 million lives and prevent 1.7 billion new malaria infections over the last two decades.
