“No malaria in Nairobi”, conference is told

27 Oct 2009

Paul Chinnock

Source: Urban Health Updates (see original article)
Source: International Conference on Urban Health (see original article)

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Nairobi city skyline.

Many people in Kenya’s capital Nairobi receive treatment for malaria. Whilst it was formerly held that the city’s altitude (1,661 metres) resulted in temperatures that were too low for the mosquito vector of the disease, it has more recent years been believed that global warming has made transmission of the disease possible. But delegates to a conference on urban malaria have now been told that it is most unlikely that malaria transmission occurs in the city.

In a presentation during the 8th International Conference on Urban Health, held in Nairobi 18–23 October, it was stated that of nearly one thousand Nairobi residents tested, none were positive for malaria. This included the 170 of those tested who reported having had a fever during the preceding 14 days. Nevertheless, half of those with fever had received malaria treatment drugs. In only four cases were recommended antimalarial agents used in their treatment.

It would thus appear that all those in the study who were given malaria treatment received it unnecessarily, and that most malaria treatment administered in Nairobi involves the use of older, ineffective drugs. The unpublished study will add to the debate as to the wisdom of “presumptive” malaria treatment.

The presentation – “Malaria Infection in an Urban Informal Settlement in Nairobi: A myth or reality” – was said to be based on studies by researchers from a number of reputable institutions, including the Kenya Medical Research Institute, the UK’s Oxford and Southampton universities, the London School of Hygiene &Tropical Medicine and the African Population and Health Research Centre.

Urban needs

The 8th International Conference on Urban Health was aimed at sharing information on innovative and practical ways of dealing with the challenges posed by population growth in urban areas and urban slums. Topics discussed during the event ranged from contraceptive use to water and sanitation, and the difficulties of providing health care to people living “informal settlements”.

Many speakers during the conference emphasised that preventive health measures, including immunization, would be wasted if countries did not consider the needs of the developing world’s rapidly growing urban populations.