HIV/AIDS: Door To Door Campaign Begins in Kitale Kenya

Jun.25.2009 Kenya Health (0)

Just how can you feel when one morning while you are working on your farm a stranger approaches you and request you to go through a HIV/AIDS test?

Many of us may not know how to respond. But to residents of Kwanza and Cherangany it has become a joy of being tested when no one is around to know about your HIV/AIDS status.

Trans AID Africa (TAA) NGO which is working in Kitale town rolled out its exercise to test HIV/AIDS in April this year. The co-odinator of the NGO Mr. Charles Maina says that they arrived at the decision to carry out door to door campaign after they realized that many people were not going for voluntary counselling that was offered by government health facilities commonly known as VCT. He also added that poverty among communities living in the larger Trans Nzoia was a contributing factor. He added that the disabled were finding it difficulty to travel to health facilities which are many miles away from their homes. He added that there was raising concern after a study revealed that HIV/AIDS was increasing among married couples.
Maina says that it is because of this reasons that his NGO together with Milimani Pambazuko and Kesogon Youth Groups rolled out a programme under HIV counselling and testing called Shamba to Shamba in Kwanza District and house to house in Cherangany of Trans Nzoia East District.

Maina says the programme has been scheduled to take 12 months which he says his group intends to cover at least 10,000 house holds. Trans Nzoia District is one of the white settlers

Kenya requires Sh62m needed to fight cholera, says Mugo

Jun.25.2009 Kenya Health (0)

By Elizabeth Mwai

The Government requires Sh62 million to fight cholera, which has claimed more than 90 lives since December.

This is despite a Sh22 million boost from the World Health Organisation in purchase of drugs and other supplies to curb the outbreak.

Yesterday, Public Health Minister Beth Mugo, who admitted lack of a contingency fund on the disease, said the outbreak had been contained in 21 of the 31 affected districts.

She said eradicating cholera was like “chasing a dream”, citing frustrations from scarcity of water, drought, floods, low toilet coverage and poor hygiene.

“An incident is reported in one place, we run there and concentrate in treating, then another outbreak emerges elsewhere,” she said.

hospital admissions

The minister said Laisamis was hardest hit, with 112 new cases reported in the last one week and 17 hospital admissions.

Others are Mombasa, Garbatulla, Malindi, Kajiado, Kilifi, Moyale and Suba districts.

Mrs Mugo noted that since December at least 3,946 diarrhoea cases had been reported out of which only 200 were confirmed to be cholera.

Last week, eight people died in Mombasa following a cholera outbreak.

The minister said although they had contained the outbreak in 21 districts, it was not a guarantee it may not re-emerge.

She appealed to water companies not to disconnect water supplies in the affected areas.

She said tackling cholera would require a wider approach.

“This water problem cannot be solved overnight but the Government has given money to the Water Ministry and this will help,” she said.

suspected cholera

She said she had instructed health officials in affected areas to treat all cases of diarrhoea as cases of suspected cholera.

She has also directed health officers to close down unhygienic eating places, and called for a ban on hawking food.

The minister said they have hired additional health workers on temporary basis to be dispatched to Moyale, Isiolo and Laisamis.

Mau Mau from Kenya demand Sh35m each from British government

Jun.25.2009 ICT in Kenya, Kenya Blogs, Kenya Business, Kenya Health, Kenya News (0)