Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 553049,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/553049/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 252,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "intervention such as public education on hygiene and sanitation, provision of safe water systems and management of cholera cases is primarily the function of the county government because this is a devolved function. As the national Government, the Ministry has continued to play its role which is mainly confined to coordination, technical assistance upon request by the counties, provision of guidelines and policy direction, provision of medical supplies and laboratory confirmation services. As part of the national government support, the Ministry has sent technical teams to all affected counties. It has also supplied medical and laboratory supplies to the affected counties. However, due to the high number of counties affected, more supplies and contingency funds are needed at the national and county levels. On whether devolution of health services in the county could be attributed to the rising cases of cholera, this is what the Ministry says: While devolution of health services promises to improve health care delivery in the country, its implementation has faced several challenges in many of the counties due to lack of proper implementation structure. This has led to a demoralized workforce that has partially led to lack of focus in building better health systems. It is possible that this could have contributed in a way to the cholera outbreak in some counties. On whether the devolved units have the prerequisite capacity to manage such health problems, devolution of health services needs time to be carefully operational. While some counties seem to be doing well, it is evident that some of the counties have challenges in managing the health services at the moment. The national Government is, therefore, however, optimistic that this will improve with time. On the circumstances leading to the emergence of cholera cases in areas that have been affected by the disease in the past, the Statement states that the current cholera outbreak is attributed to the dry spell that was experienced in most parts of the country at the beginning of the year. This resulted in scarcity of safe and clean water, hence forcing communities to use water from contaminated sources including shallow water wells and dams. Besides scarcity of safe drinking water, illegal water connections and informal settlements in Nairobi have been identified as a major risk factor to the current outbreak in the city. With the over-flooding due to the heavy rains, toilets have burst and caused a lot of contamination in the springs and wells and hence the propulsion of the cholera scourge. Other risk factors of the outbreak include widespread movement of people, floods in some parts of the country, poor hand hygiene, low use of latrines in some of the affected communities and eating food in unhygienic environments. Health indicators have also been noted to decline in some of the counties since the onset of devolution. This could also be contributing to the outbreak. In counties that have reported outbreaks, emergency funds have not been readily available to the rapid response teams. As part of trying to seek the solutions to the outbreak, the Ministry of Health will hold a major stakeholder meeting on 21st May, 2015 – this has already taken place - with representation from all the 47 counties and other stakeholders. Each county was to be represented by the County Director of Health and County Disease Surveillance Coordinator. Thank you. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}