The withdrawal of The President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (Pepfar) by the US government in 2019 has negatively impacted the health of many pregnant women in Nyanza region.
The funding catered for crucial drugs needed by pregnant women and those who are HIV positive. It would cater for anti-malarial drugs such as Fansidar, Septrine and ARVs.
However, since the funding was cut, only ARVs are available throwing Kisumu, Homa Bay and Siaya counties into a health crisis due to lack of the two other anti-malarial drugs, reports the Standard.
For Josephine (not her real name), she is five months pregnant but fears she could pose a health risk to her unborn child. She has not taken Fansidar in months because she cannot get them in any government hospital.
Nafula*, living with HIV is supposed to take Septrine daily to prevent any opportunistic infection but she cannot afford to buy a dose of Ksh720.
“The drug is very expensive and sometimes I go for days without taking the prescribed dose,” she says.
Linda, another pregnant mum from Nyalenda slums has been unable to buy Fansidar which costs Ksh150 from a local pharmacy putting her at risk of contracting malaria together with her unborn child.
This situation has now sent health experts into apprehension citing that the unavailability of these drugs in government facilities poses a great danger to the unborn babies.
According to medical data from Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital, Kisumu has recorded 60 percent of malaria infection cases.
This means that out of every 150 patients treated here, 60 of them suffer from malaria.
Further, 37,000 pregnant women, 10,000 who are HIV positive risk contracting malaria, data from the county’s Health ministry indicates.
A pharmacist at the referral hospital intimated that Fansidar and Septrine ran out of stock more than three months ago.
With pregnant women suffering from malaria, there could be increased child mortality and premature births.
“There is a possibility of increased premature births and low birth weight, in turn increasing the risk of early infant death, usually within the first month of life,” Section Head, Maternal and Newborn Health Studies at Kenya Medical Research Institute Hellen Barsosio explained.
She held that once detected, a pregnant women should be put under malaria treatment and provided a mosquito net to protect herself and the unborn child.
