A key aim of the sexual and reproductive health inquiry is to profile the success stories of Kenya’s sexual and reproductive health care system. There are many doctors, nurses, hospital administrators and staff who are working hard to provide the best services possible with the limited resources that they are allocated. Without them, Kenyans would be unable to obtain the maternal and sexual health services that they need.
According to basic health indicators compiled by the World Health Organization, Kenya’s health status has failed to show improvement in many areas over the past fifteen years. Additionally, there are significant variations in health indicators across Kenya, which implies that there is inequality in the quality of health care services across the country. There are however, a number of signs of improvement especially in the areas of malaria and HIV/AIDS control both of which pose a great challenge to sexual and reproductive health in Kenya.
HIV/AIDS Control
It is troubling that an estimated 1.4 million people are living with HIV in Kenya today, including thousands of pregnant women and children. Yet the HIV/AIDS prevalence has been continually declining from roughly 10% in the late 1990s to 6.7 percent in 2004.[1] The decline can be attributed to the availability of low-cost medicines and improved coordination for the scale-up of targeted interventions.
The rate of HIV transmission from mother to child is between 25 and 35 per cent, without interventions – meaning that 22,000 babies are born with HIV every year in Kenya.[2] Kenya's Ministry of Health has therefore partnered with UNICEF to offer a Mother-Baby pack to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS between pregnant women and their unborn babies. The Mother-Baby pack has simple instructions and can be used by women who have little access to health care because they take it on their own during their pregnancy. There is also an initiative to train hundreds of healthcare professionals in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.
Preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy
Intermittent preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy can significantly reduce the proportion of low birth weight infants and maternal anaemia.[3] As a result the current Ministry of Health policy seeks to give pregnant women at least two free doses of a prophylactic drug. Indeed currently, 24% of pregnant women in Kenya benefit from this preventive treatment.[4]
Also increased use of insecticide-treated bednets has been shown to almost eliminate malaria transmission as well as reduce infant mortality, morbidity and malaria during pregnancy.[5] The use of insecticide-treated bednets by pregnant women in Kenya is roughly 40% and is just one percent lower (39%) for children under the age of five.[6] In 2003, the rate of use by both groups was under 5%. This remarkable improvement is primarily attributable to a mass distribution campaign that targeted low-income families with young children.[7]
The right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being. It is recognized in important international human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination and the Constitution of Kenya. The right to sexual and reproductive health is a key component of this right.
It is however evident that there are still many challenges in Kenya which prevent the optimization of the right to health through the reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. Intervention programs are underway to decrease malaria prevalence, prevent HIV-transmission and generally improve access to reproductive health services, though it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs and scale-up those that are having a positive impact on reproductive health.
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing the idea there would be some apprehensions from segment but i am up for it.
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