Space Technology Could Save Thousands At Risk From Malaria
15th Mar 2011
A revolutionary piece of space age technology is being piloted by medical staff in a remote part of Kenya to prevent thousands of deaths, as part of a Comic Relief funded initiative.
The Argos machine, which was originally developed by the French Space Agency to track wildlife and shipping vessels, is being used to monitor cases of malaria in the Garissa region. It will help to identify outbreaks of the deadly disease and create an early warning system to help local healthcare managers save thousands of lives.
Health workers in remote clinics input data into the machines which is sent, via satellite, to a central computer in France, where specialist software analyses the figures. Within another hour, trained health managers in Kenya, can see the information clearly laid out on the internet, telling them if a locality is on the brink of an epidemic.
The north-east area of Kenya experiences floods every year, but they have been devastatingly widespread in the past. As Climate Change occurs, experts feel it's just a matter of time before another crippling flood brings an outbreak of malaria and a horrifying death toll.
In the past, thousands have been infected during epidemics in this region and between 10-15 per cent of all malaria cases have resulted in death. One of the challenges is getting accurate malaria case data from a wide and remote area to the provincial health managers, who have the power to send out more drugs and take urgent action.
Thanks to Comic Relief cash, The Mentor Initiative has started a four-year project to fight malaria and set up a system which shows if an epidemic is imminent.
"This technology is the first of its kind in the world," said Richard Allan, director of Mentor. "When the managers receive the data it is already fully analysed so no-one has to look at numbers and wonder what they mean. It is revolutionary and it could potentially save of thousands of lives each year."