Innovation — and research — are key to killing off neglected tropical diseases in Africa
AS a young medical doctor over 30 years ago, I had an experience no doctor wants to have. One of my patients, a young boy, died in my arms as we rushed him to the referral hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, to receive treatment. MONIQUE WASUNNA, Researcher, Kenya Medical Research Institute He had visceral leishmaniasis, a disease also known as kala-azar, which is transmitted by female sandflies. He had been brought 250 km from his village in Baringo because at that time the treatment was only available at our clinical trial site hospital in Nairobi. But we were too late. Visceral…