AMREF Health Africa lends a hand in control and prevention of communicable diseases

KENYA – AMREF Health Africa has donated Assorted Infection Prevention Controls (ICP) worth KSh2 million (US$15,663) to Migori County to help fight communicable diseases.

AMREF with the continued support from the county governments has been training the society on the best ways to control and prevent communicable diseases to ensure the community is healthy.

AMREF Health Africa official Job Ongata said that since the outbreak of Covid -19, they have continued to support and enlighten the country on different containment measures on communicable diseases.

“We are continuing to urge people to wear face masks while in crowded places and observe the Covid 19 rules to prevent them from acquiring communicable diseases,” said Ongata.

The official added AMREF Health Africa has been supplying the IPC to fifteen counties to curb the spread of communicable diseases in the country.

County Executive Committee Member for Health Services (CECM) Julius Nyerere said that the donated IPC that included liquid soap, hand sanitizers and soap dispensers would be taken to 16 health facilities and 32 community units drawn across the 12 sub-counties.

He affirmed that the county would continue to sensitise the community at the village level to help them understand preventative measures to control the spread of communicable diseases.

Nyerere explained that the donation will help the county to continue with the hygiene and weather change coalition project aimed at enlightening society on containment measures.

“As a county, we want to reduce the health burden on our people as well as reduce the cost incurred on treating diseases that could have otherwise been prevented,” said Nyerere.

He called upon more donors and partners to come on board and support health services to improve the welfare of the community in the county.

Africa needs resilient health systems to survive pandemics

The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of Amref Health Africa, Dr Githinji Gitahi, has underscored the importance of making Africa’s health delivery systems more resilient, to be able to deal decisively with future pandemics.

Dr Gitahi pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic had exposed Africa’s health systems and so in the event of yet another pandemic, “Africa must have the right structures, it must have robust disease surveillance and laboratory systems to ensure that, we have an adequate response that will protect lives and livelihoods.”

According to the Amref Health Africa Group CEO, “the last two years have been difficult for Africa as the experiences of the loss of lives, loss of livelihoods readily come into sharp focus for Africans.”

He wondered if Africa would be ready for a recurrence of happenings in the past two years.

Amref has teamed up with the Ministry of Health in Rwanda, the African Union and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to convene the fifth edition of the Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) 2023 to be held in Kigali from March 5-8th.

For all the latest healthcare industry news from Africa and the World, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, and YouTube Channel, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and like us on Facebook.