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"id": 247806,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mrs. Ngilu",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Health",
"speaker": {
"id": 111,
"legal_name": "Charity Kaluki Ngilu",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I beg to reply. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, first, I would like to thank all those hon. Members of Parliament who have made their contributions to this debate and who have supported it. I also thank the Departmental Committee on Health, Housing, Labour and Social Welfare for the work that they have done, the input they have put into this Bill and the support they have given to us. I want to assure all hon. Members of Parliament that they have raised certain concerns and we have 1258 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 8, 2006 noted them. We are going to ensure that in the amendments, they will be taken into account. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in particular, hon. Members of Parliament have talked about other diseases and research. I do agree with hon. Members that HIV/AIDS has almost taken the centre stage of diseases in this country and has actually brought in a lot of money and support. I also want to assure hon. Members that we are not forgetting other diseases. I know that diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, sexually-transmitted diseases and non-communicable diseases form part and parcel of the work that we have got to do and, therefore, we cannot ignore them. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, part of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that must be achieved by 2015, which is only nine years from today, is the reduction of HIV/AIDS infections, which we are doing, and indeed treating the same, which we are also doing. We are ensuring that we can reverse the trends of the heavy burden of diseases in this country. I want to assure hon. Members that we are looking into that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, hon. Members of Parliament are, of course, concerned about the poor infrastructure that we have, acute shortage of health workers, among others, but I want to say here that over the last one year, the Government has increased our budget by 30 per cent, and this year we are going to ensure that we actually rehabilitate most of our health facilities in the rural areas. I am sure that hon. Members of Parliament know that we have actually started by sending resources direct to the villages. This is in line with our National Health Sector Strategic Plan 2005/2010, whose theme is: \"Reversing the Trends\" and, therefore, ensuring that we focus our promotive and preventive health care to the communities. We are going back to the villages. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, an hon. Member, in his contribution to this Bill, talked about research. In particular, he talked about a drug that was developed by the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). This drug was popularly known as Kemron. We, as a country, erred by not developing it at that point in time. It is a pity that other people took it up, improved on it and patented it. For example, last year, in Geneva, some people had already taken up the drug from Egypt and patented it. It is the same drug. They have now put it in the market to treat Hepatitis B. So, we erred and that should not have been the case. Research takes a long time. Had we continued in that way, we may have come up with a drug that could be treating patients today. At the moment, we are getting generic drugs from India and the Far East. This is why we have been able to treat as many people as possible. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we can effectively address the HIV/AIDS pandemic if we do attend to the issues of adolescent health. We all know that many people who are suffering from HIV/AIDS-related diseases are between the ages of 14 and 39 years. These are young people. They are at their productive age group. Therefore, we need to understand that unless we reverse and ensure that there is no further transmission of the HIV/AIDS virus, this country will not experience economic growth. I would like to assure hon. Members that we will do everything we can to deal with all the diseases that have made things very difficult for our nation. I know many of us here have contributed money to treat or bury a loved one or a constituent. That is why we are taking this issue very seriously. I want to thank all hon. Members for the support they have been giving my Ministry. We will look at all the amendments and we shall share them with the House during the Committee Stage. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to move."
}