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Nadine Mather and Chloë Loubser
Congo: Free anti-malaria drug campaign gaining ground
Free anti-malaria medicine will soon become a reality for children younger than five and pregnant mothers after the launch of the first phase of countrywide trials to promote access to the drugs in health centres, government officials have said.
BRAZZAVILLE, 8 August 2008 (IRIN) - Since last May] we have conducted the first trials in 27 health centres around the country as part of our programme to provide the drugs to children and pregnant women,” François Libama, the director for the National Programme to Fight Malaria (PNLP), said.
He said another 38 health centres had been included. “That adds up to 65,” he said. The campaign was targeting 244 health centres countrywide by year-end.
“Currently, we are providing medicine to treat the simple forms of malaria in the health centres; in the second year, we will address the more serious forms in the hospitals,” Libama said.
The free anti-malaria treatment campaign was officially launched in Brazzaville on 15 July this year.
The government had received 272,000 boxes of anti-malaria drugs from an Indian pharmaceutical company, CIPLA, according to the Minister for Health, Social Affairs and the Family, Emilienne Raoul.
Malaria is the leading cause of death among children younger than five in the Congo, with at least 21,000 dying each year, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the PNLP in Congo.
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