• Dr Simon Kariuki, chief research officer at Kemri said Ivermectin, a conventional drug used for parasitic diseases including river blindness and elephantiasis, can make the blood of users poisonous to mosquitoes
• The 2018 Economic Survey revealed that the disease killed 16,000 Kenyans in 2016 and 17,553 in 2017
Image: /Jack owuor
The earliest that malaria can be eradicated from the world is 2050, researchers said yesterday.
In a report, 41 of the world's leading malaria experts said eradication of the disease was only possible at that time with the right tools, strategies and sufficient funding.
Today, more than half of the world's countries are malaria-free, but the disease still kills thousands of Kenyans every year.
The 2018 Economic Survey revealed that the disease killed 16,000 Kenyans in 2016 and 17,553 in 2017.
"I would be thrilled to see this global scourge eradicated even earlier," Dr Tedros Adhanom, the World Health Organization boss, said.
"But we will not achieve eradication within this time frame with the currently available tools and approaches."
The 2050 prediction was published yesterday by The Lancet Commission on malaria eradication.
One of the tools being considered is new drugs formulation.
In March 2018, the Lancet published a study showing Ivermectin, a conventional drug used for parasitic diseases, including river blindness and elephantiasis, can make the blood of users poisonous to mosquitoes.
Dr Simon Kariuki, chief research officer at the Kenya Medical Research Institute’s Centre for Global Health Research in Kisumu, took part in the study.
Dr Kariuki said 47 participants enrolled in the study between 2016 and 2017 were given three tablets of Ivermectin (at two different doses) for three consecutive days. Their blood samples were then fed to mosquitoes in cages.
"Ivermectin at both doses assessed was well tolerated and reduced mosquito survival for at least 28 days after treatment," he said in the study published in Lancet journal.
Late last month, the WHO said it was committed to the “disappearance of every single malaria parasite from the face of the planet”.
But the WHO experts warned that there must not be a repeat of past disasters.
The WHO’s first global malaria eradication programme that lasted from 1955 until 1969 rid several countries of the disease, but was not implemented in sub-Saharan Africa, the region most badly affected.
“Malaria came back with a vengeance; millions of deaths followed. It took decades for the world to be ready to fight back against malaria,” the WHO experts said following a three-year review.
Support by NGOs like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Fund has led to the distribution of millions of insecticide-impregnated bednets, new drugs and a vaccine.
Kenya plans to introduce the vaccine this year, for young children. Malawi and Ghana have already introduced the vaccine.
The WHO says better data on malaria transmission is also needed and better tools to control mosquitoes and protect and treat people in malarial regions.