He says malaria is widespread in Kenya with the highest number of cases being reported in the western, coastal and Nyanza parts of the country.Some cases have been reported in  Nairobi. Some scientists think this is due to climatic change, but Prof Bhatt attributes it to human migration.She says people come with tropical diseases from upcountry. People go upcountry and return with malaria or bilharzia to Nairobi or the mosquitoes come to the city by train.

With good control programs such as the Malaria Control Programme, there has been remarkable improvement with the prevalence rates going down in many areas because of insecticide treated nets and the availability of good anti-malarial drugs, she says. “Malaria has gone down in the country. Reduction has been impressive. In some areas, it has reduced by up to 50 percent,” says the consultant physician.  She has not seen any severe malaria cases at the hospital for the last three years. “There was a lot of severe malaria cases when I was a student here in1968, and the mortality rate was really high.”

Malaria occurs in over 100 countries and territories. More than 40 per cent of the people in the world are at risk. Large areas of Central and South America, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Africa, India, Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania are considered malaria-risk areas.The disease has also resurged in certain locations in Africa that had previously had effective control programs, such as Madagascar, South Africa, and Zanzibar.
“We cannot talk of eradicating malaria we can only talk of controlling it,” says Prof Bhatt.

Kenya is host to many refugees. These people come into the country with diseases so completely eradicating the disease will be hard. However, one can always make sure that he or she is protected by making sure you take the doctors’ prescribed medication, using treated mosquito nets and taking the correct dosage