Kenya: Blood to Be Used As Medicine

Nanomedicine and stem cell technology are the next generation of medical “miracles”, and both are already being used in Kenya. It is, however, the entry of nanomedicine into Kenya that could change the medical landscape, according to this article. Kenyan research institutes, in conjunction with the United States-based Strathmore University, recently started a nanotechnology drug development initiative in East and Central Africa, with an aim to reengineer current malaria and HIV drugs to make them more effective and revolutionary. Kenya has also joined a corroborative initiative with South Africa in the development of nanomedicine. According to Dr. Hulda Swai, head of South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), “Some of our biggest health problems in South Africa are tuberculosis and HIV while in Kenya and East Africa malaria could be the bigger headache. We are inviting Kenya to invest resources in the development of nano malaria medicine while South Africa invests in TB and HIV medicines in which case we can exchange expertise and skills.” Cancer, says the article, with over 22,000 cases reported annually, may be the sector where nanotechnology could make the biggest difference. According to Joseph Mureithi, the managing director of Precious Waters, a company that has introduced possibly the first nanomedicine product in the local market, “Nanotechnology will have the capacity to deliver just the right amount of radiation or medicine only to the infected cell, hence reducing dosage and eventual side effects.” His company has registered a nanosilver drug to act as complementary medicine against a wide spectrum of fungus, viruses, bacterium, and other disease-causing organisms. “The increasing new resistant strains of bacteria against most potent antibiotics has promoted research in the well known activity of silver nano particles in the last decade or so and this may very well be the basis of the next generation of ‘antibiotics’,” said Mureithi.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201108300034.html