Malaria Country Context

In Kenya, approximately 70% of the country’s population is at risk for malaria. Malaria transmission and infection risk in Kenya are determined largely by altitude, rainfall patterns, and temperature, which leads to considerable variation in malaria prevalence by season and across geographic regions. The malaria parasite species Plasmodium falciparum causes the majority of infections. 

Malaria remains a major public health problem in Kenya and accounts for an estimated 19% of outpatient consultations, based on data from the routine health information system. In 2018, the country reported about 3.2 million confirmed cases of malaria in health facilities, out of an estimated 3.5 million cases overall. That same year, there were an estimated 13,300 malaria deaths.

This is PMI Impact Malaria’s geographic coverage in Kenya:

PMI Impact Malaria has supported Kenya's NMCP in achieving these key accomplishments:

• Reviewed and updated Kenya’s supportive supervision malaria manual for a new approach at the facility level with standard automated checklists, called OTSS+, that focuses on continuous improvement of the competencies of health providers in case management, malaria in pregnancy (MIP), and diagnostics. 

• Conducted 156 mentorship visits and 54 OTSS+ visits to strengthen malaria case management among health providers. A review of reports from four counties shows improvement in health provider competency of malaria service delivery. 

• Increased access to preventive interventions of MIP in eight high burden counties in the Lake endemic region through training 860 community health volunteers (CHVs) and supporting them with enhanced supervision (OTSS+). The CHVs tracked 61,152 pregnant women from 189,357 households, referred 8,938 pregnant women to antenatal care (ANC), and enabled 45,483 ANC revisits. Due to these efforts in Busia county, specifically Teso South sub-county, uptake of the first dose of intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp1) increased from 84% to 93%; IPTp2 from 74% to 87%; and IPTp3 from 52% to 75%. 

• Partnered with two county referral hospitals to train 230 health providers on the management of severe malaria, data capture, and reporting, through a five day facility-based training for clinical staff, followed by a three month mentorship program. The training strengthened health provider adherence to national guidelines for management of severe malaria using parenteral artesunate, and enabled an increase in reporting of inpatient data into Kenya’s national database of facility data. This has allowed for better evaluation of inpatient cases and deaths. 

• Aligned national malaria diagnostic guidelines with global practice to support sustainable, high quality practices for malaria microscopy and malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs). 

Photo credit: Mwangi Kirubi/PMI Impact Malaria, Kenya

Sources: PMI’s Kenya Country Brief, PMI’s Kenya Malaria Operational Plan FY 2020, 2019 World Malaria Report Kenya Country Profile, PMI Impact Malaria Kenya, and Kenya’s NMCP