Kenya and Tanzania to start producing
anti-malaria drug
A company involved in the production of
artemisinine, an anti-malaria drug, is due to set up extraction plants in Kenya
and Tanzania to make the drug easily and cheaply available to patients,
according to an
official for the company.
The factories would be established in East Africa because of the potential in
the region for cultivating artemisia-annua, the plant from which the
anti-malaria drug is extracted, the managing director of African Artemisia
Limited, Geoff Burrell, said at a conference convened by the UN World Health
Organization (WHO) in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha.
He said a factory was already in operation in Uganda. The one planned for
Kenya would be functioning this year while another would be operational in 2006
in the town of Moshi in northern Tanzania.
"This is a major step in the control of malaria," said Dr Allan
Schapira, the head of coordination, strategy and policy in WHO's Roll Back
Malaria Department.
Millions of people die each year from malaria, which is transmitted through
the bite of the anopheles mosquito.
Burrell said that efforts to grow artemisia-annua have been successful in
Kenya and Tanzania due to favourable weather conditions.
"We believe that the produce [in East Africa] is of a higher quality
than what is cultivated in China and Vietnam," Burrell said.
He added that efforts were under way to cultivate the plant in Uganda this
year.
Meanwhile, Novatis, an international pharmaceuticals and consumer health
firm, announced it would expand the cultivation of artemisia-annua in Kenya,
Tanzania and Uganda.
At least 100 health experts and growers of Artemisia-annua attended the
three-day conference, which ended on Wednesday. The aim of the conference was to
ensure a reliable supply of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs).
"A dependable supply of ACTs is crucial to prevent hundreds of thousands
of deaths each year from falciparum malaria, the deadliest form of the
disease," Dr Schapira said.
At the end of the conference, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and
other participants agreed to create a taskforce to intensify cultivation of the
plant in East Africa. -IRIN
More information:
[This Item may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.
Copyright (©) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2005]
www.irinnews.org
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