As the coronavirus scourge slowly ravages through the country, the Ministry of Health has continued to reinforce its flanks to ensure that the most vulnerable - those suffering from diseases such as Tuberculosis(TB), HIV/ AIDs, hypertension and diabetes don’t fall victim.
Speaking at the daily Covid-19 briefing, CAS Dr. Rashid Aman presented the strategies the Ministry of Health has in ensuring that those suffering from TB are safe amid the spread of Covid-19.
“Today we are marking a milestone in the fight against TB in Kenya as we launch two policy documents to guide our efforts in ending Tb in the country,” said Dr. Aman.
The first policy documents will see Kenya adopt a new treatment regimen for the treatment of multiple drug-resistant TB which has been on a steady rise.
“The regimen will be devoid of injection in line with World Health Organization(WHO) call to eliminate injectable from multiple drug-resistant TB treatment regimen to improve treatment outcomes,” explained Dr. Aman.
The second policy document will focus on the treatment of latent TB which occurs when a person has the TB bacteria within their body, but the bacteria are present in very small numbers and does not show symptoms.
“This will be offered to individual who are at risk of developing active TB, Preventive treatment has proven to be an effective intervention in curtailing the development of active TB disease, “said CAS Aman.
“Latent TB treatment is currently 4500 per treatment and I’m committing here, to you, that I’m working towards bringing that number down to just about Sh1500 per treatment,” assured Gerald Macharia - Vice President of Clinton Health Access Initiative.
The move comes at a time the government rolls up its sleeves to meet both the vision 2030 and sustainable development goals of ridding the country of the disease that is the fifth leading cause of death in Kenya and kills about 1.5 million people globally according to WHO.
The news comes during the daily Covid-19 briefing as Kenya records 176 new positive covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours burgeoning the total number of cases to 6,366.
Even though 26 patients have been discharged raising the total to 239, four Kenyans have also lost their lives to Covid-19 increasing the number of deaths to 148.
100 of the cases reported in the past 24 hours are male while the youngest case is that of a three-year-old child and the oldest is 78 years.
All the new cases are Kenyans.
The CAS offered assurance of the Ministry of health working together with the country in the covid-response program to be able to balk the now growing community transmission.
“Health being a devolved function and a responsibility of counties it makes sense that counties also be enabled to provide the appropriate response… the 28 facilities that are currently doing tests, quite a number of them are actually placed in the counties are facilitated by the national government” said the CAS.
