Author: Kawira Mutisya

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Africa CDC, has issued a statement on the recent international travel rules in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Specialised Technical Institution of the African Union, noted in a statement that the planned changes to international travel rules are discrminative.

The rules  were communicated by the Government of the United Kingdom (U.K), which will be enforced starting at 4:00 am on Monday 4th October 2021.

Also Read: Public, private sector investment needed for vaccine manufacturing: EAC

“With a full course of the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna or Janssen vaccines from a relevant public health body in Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Dominica, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan or the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Formulations of the 4 listed vaccines, such as AstraZeneca Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria and Moderna Takeda, qualify as …

A recent report by Save the children has revealed that Kenyan children born over the past year will on average face 4.6 times more drought during their lives than their grandparents.

According to the research, the risk is significantly higher in many low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Asia and Africa. Compared to 60-year-olds, newborns in Afghanistan will confront 5.3 times more drought in their lifetimes.

“In Tanzania and Kenya, children will face 2.8 and 4.6 times the exposure to drought, respectively,” it read in part.

The organisation also noted that the children will be the most affected because they are at a greater risk of battling waterborne diseases, hunger and death due to drought and floods.
“Some children might even be hit by several disasters simultaneously or in quick successions such as drought, floods and fires,” it added.

According to an analysis by the International Federation of Red Cross …

Currently, Dr Onyino says that the Kenya Medical Association is a member of the NHIF Board where we have contributed to the reform agenda aimed at optimizing the organization in readiness to implement UHC.

The current proposed National Hospital Insurance Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which leaves the KMA unrepresented on the Board of NHIF, will silence the voices of professional doctors in shaping UHC, which must strike a balance between financial sustainability and providing proper medical services to Kenyans, consistent with the oath we have sworn.…

In Kenya, more than 12,000 people have end-stage kidney disease requiring dialysis. Currently, more than 5,000 patients are on dialysis in Kenya. This is according to data provided by the ministry of health.

There are currently  214 dialysis units countrywide in our public (54), private (143) as well as faith-based (17) health facilities.

According to the Chief Administrative Secretary Ministry of Health Dro Mercy Mwangangi, what is astonishing is there are only 41 nephrologists and 560 nurses in the country to deal with all these patients.

All is not doom

Dr Mwangangi says that there have been success stories that have given life to our kidney patients. According to The ministry of health statistics, 661 kidney transplants have been carried out in the country since 2006. Thanks to you my fellow doctors in the room some of whom if not all have been responsible for this great success.

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In the past decade, Kenya has made tremendous advancements in increasing access to modern methods of contraception.

However, this has significantly reduced in the past year and experts are linking this downward trajectory to the recent global pandemic.

“In Kenya, contraceptives use among women of reproductive health has been on an upward trajectory from 37.2 percent in 2017/18 to 44 percent in 2019/2020. This rate has declined to 29.6% in 2020/21, due to disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.(KHIS, 2021),” said Dr. Patrick Amoth the chairperson of the World Health Organisation (WHO) executive board.

Data from the Ministry of Health shows that the percentage of married women using modern methods of family planning has increased from 36% in 2007 to 61% currently. This has helped curb rapid population growth and drive development.

Also Read:Kenyan Government Steps up War Against Covid-19

“With the COVID-19 pandemic upending lives across the world, …

According to data availed by the ministry of health, Dolutegravir (DTG) based regimens have high potency, a high genetic barrier to HIV drug resistance, low toxicity, and have fewer drug-to-drug interactions. 

It says that the availability of DTG 50mg film-coated tablets will foster improved adherence among the Children and Adolescents Living with HIV thereby improving treatment outcomes in children and adolescents.

“Evidence supports using DTG as a preferred First line ARV drug for Children and adolescents living with HIV with approved dosing and people co-infected with TB. The donation today adds an impetus to ensure that no child or adolescent living with HIV and has been transitioned to DTG as their current regimen, misses their drugs,” she added.…

For the first time, Pfizer vaccines from the United States have landed in the country.

The country received 795,600 doses of the expected 1.4 million doses of Pfizer vaccine provided by the US Government.

Due to the nature of the Pfizer vaccines, they can only survive in extremely low temperatures which is minus 70
degrees. The government thus had to make prior arrangements with its partners to acquire ultra-cold storage and install it to maintain the quality of the vaccines.

To enable the use of Pfizer vaccines in Kenya, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has recently procured 12 ultra-low temperature freezers and accessories with funding from the Government of Japan.

The Pfizer vaccine is the 4th type of Covid-19 vaccine to be deployed in the country making an approximate number of doses received so far over into the country 6.3 million in their various assortments.

These vaccines will go a …

The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) has reaffirmed its commitment to the governments effort in combating the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement to newsrooms, KEPSA noted that it has been at the forefront in coordinating the private sector response and complementing the government’s efforts towards combating the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy, general health, and social wellbeing of Kenyans.

“We would like to affirm the government’s position, reiterated by the Health Cabinet Secretary Mr Mutahi Kagwe on private sector’s partnership through KEPSA on the vaccine initiative. We have partnered with the government through the Ministry of Health (MOH) in a bid to support the government in shouldering the burden of vaccinating Kenyans,” KEPSA noted.

This will accelerate the pace of vaccinations and get the country closer to herd immunity by the end of the year and get the economy to rebuild back better.

Also Read: KEPSA’s

Kenya has become the first country in Africa, and globally, to launch a national malaria youth army.  

In the global arena, it has been a constant battle to eradicate malaria and efforts have been channeled towards this initiative. 

Below is a global map and the malaria prevalence in each country. 

Countries with zero indigenous cases over at least the past three consecutive years are considered to have eliminated malaria.  

In 2019, China and El Salvador reported zero indigenous cases for the third consecutive year and have applied for World Health Organisation (WHO) certification of malaria elimination; also, Iran, Malaysia and Timor Leste reported zero indigenous cases for the second time. 

In 2017, the WHO warned that the global response to the malaria menace had reached crossroads. This was a wake-up call from the organisation that more needs to be done to further reduce the spread of the disease. 

The …

Kenya and Uganda are among the countries selected for the Phase 1 clinical trial of an HIV vaccine.  According to the Globally Relevant AIDS Vaccine Europe-Africa Trials Partnership (GREAT), the first dose will be given in Lusaka, Zambia while Kenya and Uganda will receive the vaccines in a few weeks.  

Dr. William Kilembe, project director of the Center for Family Health Research in Zambia (CFHRZ) and trial principal investigator, said that international partnerships are crucial in developing and evaluating HIV vaccine candidates in countries and communities where HIV vaccines will ultimately have the greatest public health impact. 

“CFHRZ is proud to be part of the consortium evaluating HIVconsvX and to deliver the first dose of this experimental HIV vaccine in the HIV-CORE 006 trial,” he said.  

The trial will see 88 healthy, HIV-negative adults, aged 18-55, who are considered not to be at high risk of infection, receive one …