Snowy Owl
Retired in 2010, In Memoriam
Vital lessons from Rift Valley Fever
THE outbreak and subsequent spread of the Rift Valley Fever has exposed the alarming lack of preparedeness and anticipation in the face of disease outbreak.
Whereas it is true that certain events can be of such magnitude as to defy effective execution of even the most carefully planned eventuality, there is nogainsaying that for a long time Kenyans have bothered precious little about the safety of meat consumed around the country.
The assumption being that Public Health gurus, through the heirachy have been doing their job, thus guaranteeing consumers the safety of meat in the market.
The killer disease has unfortunately woken Kenyans to the reallity that one: those charged did not give sufficient thought to the possible outbreak of a disease whose pattern of occurences is common knowledge. That we have a woeful deficiency in numbers of public health officials and livestock officers and that even for those we have, they have not been provided with basic tools of work and protective working gear.
The death of a veterinary officer in Kirinyaga district early this month after operating on a goat suspected to be suffering from the dreaded RVF, could be dismissed by some as constituting occupational hazard but it nonetheless talks volumes of wilful failures and shortfalls.
One is then reminded of the health risks thousands of nurses and other medical officers across the country are exposed to, due to lack of protective cover. This government has committed considerable funding to health, which is commenadable, but complaints persist over lack of basic protective gear when it comes to accident victims and those with contagious and easily communicable diseases like TB. It is not enough that nursing staff are paid risk allowances.
Often nurses are forced to handle bleeding victims in an emergency situation without gloves. The same story obtains with midwives who handle deliveries in health centres without the requisite tools.
Rift Valley Fever may not be as severe as Ebola yet it has killed and is still killing Kenyans and their livestock. The government, the Ministries of Health and Livestock must strive to ensure that men and women who are charged with saving lives others and boosting livestock output have adequate measure of protection.
As much as a lot more is being devoted to health related public institutions, we must remain vigilant and learn from the type of costly errors of omission and commission which the Rift Valley Fever has exposed in terms of funding and equipment.
Abuja declaration
Clearly, there is no need for the government to send high profile delegations to Abuja and yet do nothing about implementing its resolutions. It was at the Abuja decalaration where African countries pledged to commit 15 per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) towards the improvement of health services.
The non-observance of the Abuja declaration has catalysed the exodus of Kenyan medics and paramedics to seek engagement elsewhere, including to Britain and USA.
True these people may be submitting remittances to their folks back at home but one has only to factor in what it costs the Kenyan taxpayer to train one doctor and it becomes very clear that the brain drain in this aspect is too expensive for us.
And why would the government retrench and freeze training for public health officers only to hire them when disaster strikes?
Clearly someone at the policy level needs to be reminded that the RVF has been handled rather badly and that vital lessons must be learnt from the tragedy. Not only has the cost to livestock farmers been staggeringly high but worse, too many lives have not only been lost but contunue to be lost.
In the past this country used to export meat and meat products to the European Union and the Middle East. Somewhere along the line, we slackened in ensuring requisite standards for exports and the axe inevitably fell on our exports. With the revival of the Kenya Meat Commission, there was a glimmer of hope that we could recalim lost external market but given the way we have handled this fever, we will have to go back to the drawing board. It is interesting to note that a late meat exporter to the EU, namely Botswana has personnel running their famed meat export industry trained in Kenya.