Unique malaria epidemic looms in Kenyan towns

A MALARIA epidemic may hit Kenya’s major cities unless concerted efforts are made to forestall the outbreak.
Following radical changes in the ecology and behaviour of the anopheles mosquito, the major malaria vector, experts warn that such an epidemic is very likely.
Malaria remains one of the most important diseases in the tropics. It is the greatest contributor to the rising morbidity and mortality of all infectious diseases, and is currently followed closely by HIV/Aids.
In Kenya, the disease accounts for between 25 and 30 per cent of outpatient hospital attendance. It varies in endemicity from malaria-free zones to hyper and holo-endemic zones.
Over 36 per cent of Kenya’s children die before their fifth birthdays. Twelve per cent of these deaths are due to malaria. Currently, it is estimated that 93 children die in Kenya daily from the disease.

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Firms revert to science for African food output

FOUR of the world’s largest agricultural companies have agreed to share their technology free with African scientists in a broad new attempt to increase food production on the continent, where mass starvation is a recurring threat.
The companies, based in the United States and Europe, said they would donate patent rights, seed varieties, laboratory know-how and other aid to help African agricultural scientists who are working with small-scale farmers to battle plant disease, insects and drought.
A new organisation, the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, is being set up in Nairobi to spearhead the project. In an effort to cut through the thicket of patent rights and corporate interests that complicates many research projects in biology, the foundation will aim to identify crop problems in Africa that might be amenable to technological solutions.

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