The Kisumu County government has rolled out new Rapid Detection Kits for malaria in all health facilities especially health centres and dispensaries in the county.
Governor Jack Ranguma said they have also stocked all health facilities with malaria drugs for treatments in order to prevent the disease related deaths.
Ranguma said new opportunities for better malaria surveillance as opened up as rapid and reliable test are now available in the county. He said to fight malaria to the finish, one needs to know exactly where transmission is still occurring.
He added that diagnostic tests are so quickly and simple that they can be used right down to the community level.
“This is especially important for a disease like malaria that tends to flourish in remote rural areas,” he said.
He said he has made availability of those tests a priority and is therefore issuing a strong recommendation that every suspected case of malaria must be diagnosed before treatment is given.
“This policy mark a radical departure from the past. In the old days, cases were so common that every child with fever was presumed to have malaria and if lucky was treated of such,” said Ranguma on Saturday in Kisumu.