Vital medicines arrive to combat malaria

Vital anti-malaria medicines to combat a looming epidemic in Ethiopia have been released from customs, officials told IRIN on Friday. The medicines, worth US $700,000 arrived in the country on 18 August and were released on 2 October. They will be distributed to hard hit areas early next week. A spokesman from the Ethiopian Customs Authority told IRIN: “The drugs were subject to urgent clearance. We got them out as soon as possible.” Malaria is the third biggest killer in the country and claims around 250 lives a day. Some 40 million people in the country are at risk of infection. Christiane Rudert, head of health and nutrition at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ethiopia, said the drugs were vital in combating the potential emergency. “UNICEF emptied its global warehouse of anti-malarials and air freighted them to Ethiopia within one week,” Rudert told IRIN. “We are now in the process of distributing the drugs, procured with funds from the US government, to the priority zones," she added. Among the drugs are desperately needed quinine injections for the worst cases of cerebral malaria that can kill in a matter of days. Earlier this week the government appealed to the nation for concerted action against the looming malaria epidemic. Both the ministry of health and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have warned of the vital need to get drugs out to rural areas as soon as possible to avert a crisis. “We have to get more medicines into Ethiopia fast,” Dr David Nabarro, WHO global emergency head warned during his most recent visit to the country. Around 100,000 people have already been affected by malaria in the last few months in drought-hit Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region (SNNPR). Tens of thousands of insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) have also been distributed to try and combat the disease.