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{
    "id": 1233828,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1233828/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 317,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ndhiwa, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Martin Owino",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Initially, before and soon after Independence, we used to have matrons and nurses in schools, but that practice died. There was a provision that each sub-location should have a dispensary and a health centre fully equipped to quickly isolate and deal with all the pathogens that we have mentioned today. That also subsided. I appeal to health departments in the county governments to screen children before releasing them to the community. If that is not done, we risk the transfer of pathogens to other family members and friends. When things fail and diseases come in, there is a standard public health approach on how to do things. One, is immediate response. Now that brings in the Ministry of Roads to ease evacuation. All our schools must be connected with better roads if evacuation is to be achieved. Two, in medicine, there is a language that says even if you are doing triaging, you have to stable a patient. They should not have closed the school and released students to transfer pathogens to other areas. You have to stable a patient. Even if it means putting up a field hospital, you have to do it. That did not happen. So, county governments and national Government should be responsible for disease surveillance so that they know the trend of diseases and warn entities accordingly. Lastly, this disease has not affected health only. It will also affect the education outcome. What will become of students who are traumatised because of the loss of other students and are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? When they come back to school, their performance scores will be low. So, we are dealing with a crisis. My time is gone. The Ministry of Health and the county governments must be called to action. As a Member of the Departmental Committee on Health, we need to have an inter-sectoral kind of arrangement with the Departmental Committee on Education and Research and address this matter. Thank you."
}