News Categories: Health and Sanitation

The County Government of Nandi through the department of Health and Sanitation has today received incubators and Incu blankets that will help to support pre-term babies and improve the neonatal care service offered in the county.

Okoa Malaika (OM) is a program that was launched by Ushiriki Wema in affiliation with the Mudavadi Memorial Foundation to provide quality care to babies born prematurely across the country.

Speaking at the grand launch and distribution of the equipments Nandi County Deputy Governor Her Excellency Dr. Yulita Mitei lauded Mama Tessie Mudavadi for donating the incubators to Nandi County and the counties in North Rift region which will help in reducing infant mortality in the region.

H.E Mama Tessie affirmed her commitment to work closely with the 47 counties to promote quality mother to child healtcare.

Present at the event were Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Peoples Republic of China Mr. Zhang Zhizhong, First lady’s for North Rift Governors, County Chief Nursing Officer Susan Biwott, County Clinical Officer Lilian Boit, Deputy Director Finance and Administration Philip Kogo, Health staff from North Rift Region amongst others.

Traditional initiation involving circumcision remains an important topic among the Nandi people for several reasons.

Elders during the meeting

At the top of the list is the public health discourse and debates around prevention of initiates’ deaths. But initiation is also important because the practice is still relevant and employed in a range of rural and urbanising communities across the county and Kenya at large.

The County Departments of Health and Sanitation and that of Culture has started advocating for safe initiation. Earlier today, it held a cultural leaders (Nandi Kaburwo Elders, traditional and religious leaders) engagement meeting on safe male initiation practices. The traditional leaders openly endorsed and supported pre-initiation camps to educate and socialise boys and ensure stakeholder commitment to the safe operation of initiation spaces.

The objectives of the engagement meeting was to advocate for safe male circumcision practices, to review data on triple threat with focus on the boy child, to evaluate cultural practices in line with emerging diseases/conditions and to come up with a way forward on key recommendations.

Stanley Baliach, Chief Of Staff

The one day meeting was convened by the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC).

The elders called for dialogues at the community level to find ways on improving the health standards in the initiationprocesses. These dialogues should involve men and elderly women, parents and custodians of culture, in particular the duty bearers within the Traditional Leaders.

Dr David Bungei, County Director for Health

The County Government of Nandi accompanies and supports efforts to ensure the rite of passage is safe for our boys.

It does so by collaboratively finding practical, achievable and implementable measures to deal with challenges confronting Customary Male Initiation across the county.

The prevention of mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is one of the most successful HIV prevention strategies, with substantial reductions in the number of HIV positive children born to HIV positive women.

In Nandi County, the mother-to-child transmission of HIV is one of the greatest health challenges with hundreds of infants infected annually. Scaling up PMTCT services in the county is crucial in eliminating mother-to-child transmission.

Hon Ezra Rotich, Chairperson Health
Committee – Nandi Assembly

The vast majority of maternal deaths are preventable when women have access to quality antenatal and postnatal care, and safe delivery attended by skilled personnel that is supported by emergency obstetric care. While the death of a mother is a tragedy in itself, it also has devastating effects on the survival of her children, the economic stability of the family, and the productivity of the community.

The County Government of Nandi builds on decades of successes in improving maternal health and HIV prevention, care, and treatment to move towards elimination of vertical transmission, critical to stemming the rise in new HIV diagnoses and achieving control of the HIV epidemic.

Acknowledging the importance of global partnerships, including the Walter Reed Program, as well as collaborative efforts, Nandi has seen significant progress in the past years, with a reduction in new HIV infections and a decrease in AIDS-related deaths.

Earlier today, the County Department of Health and Sanitation held a multisectoral advocacy meeting convened by the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC) for PMTCT demand creation targeting top religious leaders, County Administrators, County Assembly Health Committee members to address family, religious and cultural barriers and lobby for funding of county EMTCT plans.

The objectives of the meeting were to explain the missed opportunities within the PMTCT cascade, including Pediatric HIV Care, to identify innovative multisectoral pathways and opportunities that Nandi County can harness towards the validation of elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and Hepatitis B and lobby for funding of Nandi County EMTCT plans.

Speaking during the event, the Deputy Governor Dr Yulita Cheruiyot pledged the county’s support in strengthening the county EMTCT program. “We are committed to be among the counties in Kenya to be validated for the pre-elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and Syphilis,” she said.

Present at the event were the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC) officials, Hon Ezra Kipchirchir who’s also the County Assembly Health Committee Chairperson and his Nandi hills counterpart Hon Edwin Kiprop among other top county and national government administration officials.

February 11 is the “World Day of the Sick”, celebrated by the Catholic Church on the memorial day of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes, to devote special attention to sick people and care-givers.

The Rt. Rev. Dominic Kimengich of the Catholic Diocese of Eldoret together with the Deputy Governor Dr Yulita Cheruiyot earlier today led the residents of Nandi in celebrating the day at the Kobujoi Catholic Church.

Celebrated under the theme “Healing Love: Witnessing to Compassion and Service”, Bishop Kimengich called upon all Christians to endeavor and be attentive to the needs of the sick, the hungry, all the needy and work towards being sources of mercy, joy, and hope to the sick and the needy. He invited the congregation to pray for healthcare workers, and appreciate the sacrifices they make for the benefit of the sick in communities.

The celebration also included a medical camp that attracted over 100 medical personnel who treated more than 800 patients free of charge.

Bishop Kimengich thanked all who provided medical expertise and material in support of the medical camp. He extended the Pope’s apostolic blessing for comfort and healing upon all the sick in families. The Day was beautifully celebrated, leaving a smile and giving hope and comfort to the sick and the needy who attended the day.

The Deputy Governor thanked the Catholic Church for their continued partnership in the health sector.

The World Day of The Sick was instituted by St Pope John Paul II on May 13th May 1992 as a day of prayer and charity for the sick and the needy. It is celebrated annually on the 11th of February, coinciding with the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Also present were the CEC Membi for Health and Sanitation Ruth Koech and Kobujoi Ward MCA Hon Mathew Nga’rngar.

Obstetric ultrasound has become an imperative component of ANC worldwide, with the World Health Organisation recommending that every pregnant woman should receive at least one ultrasound before 24 weeks of gestation.

Unrealized maternal and child health goals continue to challenge LREB region and Kenya at large where adverse outcomes remain high and diagnostic services are limited. The acute shortage of doctors and radiographers requires alternate human resources for health (HRH) with the ability to identify risk factors in pregnancy through Point-Of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS).

LREB in partnership with KEMET and the Center for Public Health and Development (CPHD) Ministry of Health Department of Reproductive Health converged today in Kapsabet town to deliberate and develop a unified roadmap to strengthen the skills of our health cadres through implementing ultrasound education, training, and certification as a focused strategy to reduce preventable maternal-fetal morbidity and mortality throughout the region.

The most common causes of neonatal mortality as infections, birth asphyxia, birth injuries, preterm births, and birth defects. It is worth noting that these mortality causes are conditions for which timely ultrasound imaging could be of immense help in early diagnosis and hence intervention, leading to the reduction of mortality rates among mothers and their babies.

Ectopic pregnancy, abortion, and gestational trophoblastic diseases (GTDs) are the commonest conditions of the first-trimester that can cause maternal mortality, due to the possibility of severe haemorrhage, shock or sepsis. Patients usually present with bleeding and/or pain but can also remain asymptomatic for a long time. In some cases patients don’t even realize that they are pregnant, particularly in some cases of ectopic pregnancy and missed abortion. Ultrasound imaging is extremely useful for obtaining accurate diagnosis for these first trimester conditions. It is therefore important to exclude early pregnancy pathology in every woman of reproductive age who presents with amenorrhoea, abnormal bleeding and/or pain, using diagnostic ultrasound imaging in combination with beta human chorionic gonadotropin (β-HCG). This approach to medical care can potentially reduce maternal mortality rates.

LREB aims at implementing ultrasound education, training and certification in reducing preventable maternal-fetal morbidity and mortality throughout the region hence improving Maternal- Fetal outcomes through access to POCUS and Making POCUS for Every Mother Accessible (MaPEMA) project.

Present at the meeting were, The CECM Health for Health Ruth Koech, Chief Officer Fredrick Kiptum, Director for Health Dr. David Bungei, Kapsabet Referral Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr. Aiyabei Ismael, Reproductive Health Co-Ordinator Laban Talam, LREB CEO Representative Martin Sikolia , KMET Research and Monitoring Coordinator Brenda Achieng’ and Liddy Dulo Reproductive health programs Coordinator.

In Kenya, malaria accounts for more than 20% of outpatient visits, 19% of hospital admissions, and 3-5% of hospital deaths and is a leading cause of mortality in children less than 5 years of age.

Prompt, quality assured laboratory diagnosis is key to effective malaria case management and control.

Correct diagnosis of malaria reduces unnecessary treatment helps prevent the development of drug resistance and increases the likelihood of correct treatment for other febrile illnesses.

A key tenet of malaria control is strengthening data collection and analysis capacity, which is also critical for malaria elimination. This contributes to better decisions which drive programme performance and outcomes.

The County Government of Nandi is scaling and sustaining access to prompt malaria diagnosis and effective treatment to the entire population.

Part of the implementation of the malaria strategy has been to strengthen laboratory diagnosis of malaria across all levels of the health care system and in all epidemiological zones within the county.

These efforts has seen the County Government of Nandi named the best overall in National Malaria External Quality Assurance Champion for the implemention of National Quality Assurance in parasitological diagnosis of malaria guidelines.

According to Abigael Jerotich, the County Malaria Quality Assurance Officer based at the Kapsabet County Referral Hospital, who received the award on behalf of the county, one of the intermediate results was an improvement in quality Malaria diagnostics. “Initially, malaria was diagnosed without any roadmap and the quality of malaria diagnosis was not given preference,” says Abigael.

To address this challenge, given that Nandi is among the counties with prevalence of malaria, the County Government of Nandi prioritized capacity building for health workers.

“We were taken through a series of trainings that has helped us to transform the management of malaria in the county,” she attests. “We have strengthened the technical support supervision and mentorship in link facilities that have contributed to the usage of commodities and documentation with an aim to improve the accuracy of malaria diagnostics at link facilities.”

She called for the establishment of a County Malaria Reference Laboratory in the county.

Malaria eradication is a top priority of the County. It has devoted resources and expertise to a relentless pursuit of malaria eradication, and has continuously adapted the approach to achieve the greatest possible impact, in partnership with key stakeholders in health.

The CEC Member for Health and Sanitation Ruth Koech who’s also the Vice Chairperson – Health CECs Caucus joined the counties’ CECM Health Leadership during a meeting with the COG Health committee led by the Chairman and Tharaka Nithi County Governor H.E Muthomi Njuki and attended by Governor Stephen Sang at the COG HQs in Nairobi.

Some of the key issues discussed and resolutions made included plans for Universal Health Coverage (UHC), onboarding of all Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) from all the counties, provision of a clear mechanism of managing and sustaining CHVs, sensitisation and capacity building of CHVs and also assessment of Health facilities in order to know the status of equipment and human resource.

In a previous meeting held on 9 May 2023 between the Ministry of Health and County Executive Committee members for Health, MoH informed CECs about the required paradigm shift in health service delivery in order to align to the UHC agenda.

The County Government of Nandi is committed to offering quality healthcare services to the residents of Nandi.

#ContinuedTransformation

The CEC Member for Health and Sanitation Ruth Koech, has encouraged sportsmen and women in the county to continue to maintain a sustained and high level of performance in their respective sporting fields.

“Constantly work to hone your skills in your chosen sport and maintain high standards of physical fitness,” she urged, noting that sports served as a source of unity and upliftment for the county and country’s men and women,” she said.

She was addressing the Nandi Sports team at Kilibwoni Health Center who are headed to Kapenguria in West Pokot County for a tournament.

She encouraged the team on good nutrition and physical activity and wellness and the need to maintain a high level of discipline and integrity, both on and off the field of sports, to strive for excellence, and remain humble even when they are excelling.

She called on athletes to be routinely screened for mental health symptoms across a range of metrics such as sleep, nutrition and injury and mental health should be treated no differently.

The CEC Member said that there’s need to address the everyday wellness of our sportsmen and women rather than wait for a situation to reach crisis point and then intervene.

“Many people think that accessing mental health support is only for someone with a major issue or concern but that is not the case at all. We encourage athletes to use the services we have available at our health facilities to just check in, talk to someone about what is happening in their life and help them to understand and work through any concerns they may have,” she said.

Ruth said there’s need to make sure that mental health needs are also being identified as early as possible to prevent issues from worsening and providing proper support and treatment. It’s a case of ‘if you don’t ask, they won’t tell,’ so screening is definitely needed.

The County Department of Health and Sanitation aims to improve mental health by strengthening effective leadership and governance, providing comprehensive, integrated and responsive community-based care, implementing promotion and prevention strategies, and strengthening information systems.

The County Department of Health and Sanitation in collaboration with Emgwen Member of Parliament will hold a one week free medical camp across the Constituency.

Speaking while receiving a consignment of drugs from KEMSA at Kilibwoni Health Center, Emgwen Member of Parliament Hon Josses Lelmengit said the event is meant to help the locals with free medication and assessment.

He noted that Emgwen community will benefit from the free medical camps where they will access free general medical check-ups, medication reviews, counselling for family planning, cervical & prostate cancer screening, dental care, and eye assessment.

The event is being held at an opportune time as Nurses celebrate the International Nurses Week where Nurses from Nandi County have also organized a series of events across the county to offer free medical services to the residents to mark the event.

The CEC Member for Health and Sanitation Ruth Koech said that the event will also included health education (family planning, nutrition, diet, and public health) sessions and the distribution of essential medications including contraceptive methods.

She lauded the partnership saying the department of health is committed to offering quality healthcare services to Nandi residents.

“One of the most rewarding part is to see the impact we are having on people’s lives,” she added.

The free medical camps facilitated by Emgwen Constituency Office aim to extend health services and bring them closer to their communities. It offers a platform for health practitioners to give back to the community by putting their skills into practice. The camps also help community members and medical staff interact freely from the hospital setting.

The County Government of Nandi under the able leadership of Governor Stephen Sang, is taking every possible measure to strengthen the health care infrastructure in the county.

Patients in various health facilities in the County will benefit from a reliable supply of oxygen. This is after the county commissioned the second state-of-the-art oxygen plant in the latest collaboration between the County Department of Health and Sanitation and USAID.

The move, is a big boost for Nandi residents in accessing quality and affordable healthcare services. This has also seen the county receive 300 new oxygen cylinders courtesy of AMREF Africa as well as ongoing oxygen piping and manifold in 7 facilities across the county.

The plant will provide an adequate oxygen supply to meet the hospital’s demand, enabling it to provide high-quality healthcare services to the residents of Nandi.

The PSA Oxygen Plant has been designed to cater to the high demand for medical-grade oxygen at the hospital and other facilities within the county. With the capacity to generate, supply, store pure medical oxygen and it will provide oxygen supply to hospital beds and the Critical Care Unit (CCU).

Speaking during the commissioning of the facility, Governor Stephen Sang said it has been his dream that residents receive services at their doorstep cutting on the baggage of doing long travels seeking for critical services from neighbouring Counties.

The Governor said the plant aims at boosting access to universal health care (UHC) by providing affordable oxygen to critically ill patients.

“The hospital will now have a reliable and constant supply of medical oxygen, which will ensure that critically ill patients receive timely and appropriate medical attention. This is part of our larger plan to strengthen the healthcare system in Nandi County and to provide affordable and accessible healthcare services to all our citizens,” said Governor Sang.

The oxygen at the facility is interconnected to the wards for easy access by all within different departments at the hospital easing on the burden of carrying gas cylinders to wards.

The Governor said putting up of the Oxygen plant has been his Government’s commitment as one way of meeting Sustainable Development Goal Number 3 which aims at improving and access to quality healthcare to all by the year 2030.

The County Chief thanked the USAID for their continued support in various sectors in the county.

On his part, USAID Deputy Mission Director for Kenya and East Africa region Bert Ubamadu lauded the County Government of Nandi under the leadership of Governor Stephen Sang for the transformation in the healt sector.

Dr Edward Serem who represented the Health PS Eng Peter Tum said that the Oxygen Plant is key to Nandi County and beyond. He said the Ministry of Health will continue to support the County Government of Nandi in taking services closer to the people.

Present at the event were the Deputy Governor Dr Yulita Cheruiyot, Chief Officer for Health and Sanitation Fredrick Kiptum, Nandi Hills Ward MCA Hon Edwin Kiprop, Kapchorwa Ward MCA Hon Richard Bett and Chepkunyuk Ward MCA Hon JohTiltai, Nandi Hills Sub County DCC, Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Chepkwony, outgoing MedSup Dr Joseph Kangor, officials from Chemonics, JEBHEIGO and CHAI among other guests.