Health CS tours Busia to inspect preparedness against Ebola

Ministry of Health has confirmed that level of preparedness against communicable diseases at the Busia One Stop Border Post (OSBP) is above board.

Cabinet Secretary for Health Sicily Kariuki toured the border on Thursday, when she said requisite equipment for detection of ebola are available.

She was taken through the process of how visitors coming in Kenya are screened. The CS brought two refrigerators for the preservation of the vaccines that will be used in children's immunization in Busia County.

According to Kariuki, the average of immunization in children against non-communicable disease is at 83 percent, but she wants it to reach 90 percent.

“We attained 83 percent because of working closely with county government but our target is to reach 90percent. The level of preparedness against communicable disease is good and equipment needed for detection of such disease are available at the Port of Entry in Busia,” noted Kariuki.

 She urged the director of medical services to roll out trainings for every person interacting with the public at the entry point at the OSBP.

“ Our staff should go through customer care training so that in the rush when handling people passing through the entry point to Kenya from neighbouring countries they are not seen like they are uncourteous unknowingly,” she said.

The CS said at least 333 cases of ebola have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and 200 have died of the disease.

Busia Deputy Governor Moses Mulomi said the county will work closely with the Ministry of Health in improving medical services.

The county received Sh553 million from the Kenya Devolution Support Programme and a huge chunk of the money was channelled to the department of health headed by Mulomi.

He said most of the public health hospitals in Busia located near the border are overstretched because of the influx of patients from Uganda coming to seek medication in Kenya.