- Five additional marginalised counties with underserved populations were selected for accelerated action and investment.
- Despite Kenya making progress in reducing newborn and maternal mortality, child deaths remain unacceptably high with 52 out of 1,000 children born dying every year.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
The Ministry of Health is banking on innovative ways to ensure the number of deaths of children under the age of five years is reduced.
The Ministry and partners seek to apply low cost interventions for protection, prevention and treatment of diseases.
They also seek to strengthen child health services at the county level through targeted training and equipping facilities with life-saving equipment.
This is after it emerged that, despite Kenya making progress in reducing newborn and maternal mortality, child deaths remain unacceptably high with 52 out of 1,000 children born dying every year.
Unfortunately, 70 per cent of these deaths are attributed to preventable and treatable childhood illnesses.
These include diarrhoea, pneumonia (acute respiratory infections), malnutrition, anaemia, malaria, measles, HIV and tuberculosis.
The Ministry early this month launched the 2021-2025 Newborn and Child Health Strategic Plan that seeks to identify the gaps and increase investment for ending neonatal and maternal mortality in Kenya.
Key on the agenda is aggressively targeting leading drivers of both maternal and neonatal mortality.
These are postpartum haemorrhage, hypertension in pregnancy (eclampsia), maternal and neonatal sepsis, prematurity and birth asphyxia.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
The plan also prioritises investments in 15 counties with high burden of poor maternal and child health outcomes, low coverage rates, and large underserved populations.
Five additional marginalised counties with underserved populations were also selected for accelerated action and investment to improve national impact within the respective counties.
“While acute malnutrition among children under five years is relatively low in Kenya (at four per cent), there are regional variations with North Eastern having almost 14 per cent,” Isaak Bashir of the Department of Family Health said.
“Effects of communicable diseases including Covid-19 have been taken into consideration," Bashir added.
"Critical social determinants of health of newborns and children in Kenya include water, sanitation and hygiene and other socio-economic factors have also been analysed.”
Counties to be prioritised in investment include Kakamega West-Pokot, Marsabit, Nairobi, Samburu, Isiolo and Bungoma.
Others are Migori, Kitui, Turkana, Trans-Nzoia, Wajir, Nakuru, Garissa, Tana River, Mandera, Kilifi, Lamu, Narok and Homa Bay.
The Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS 2014) shows that since 2003, Kenya decreased its under-five mortality rate from 114 to 52 deaths per 1,000 live births.
The country also decreased its infant mortality rate from 77 to 39 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
This has reduced further in the past five years.
The neonatal mortality rate on the other hand has decreased at a slower rate, and currently stands at 20 deaths per 1,000 live births.
The SDG target is a reduction in the neonatal mortality rate to 12 per 1,000 live births by 2030.
A total of 51,000 infant deaths were reported in 2017 representing a decrease from 64,000 in 1990.
The under five deaths decreased from 110,000 in 1990 to 69,000 in 2017.
The head of the Division of Neonatal and child health at the Ministry Caroline Mwangi acknowledged that low financial resource allocation are some of the gaps that should be addressed.
The allocations are interventions aimed at improving newborn and child health indicators and staff shortages at health facility level.
Other challenges include lack of medicines and equipment used in the management of sick newborns and children,including access to health care facilities.
In 2016, newborn deaths in Kenya accounted for approximately 46 per cent of all under five deaths.
Birth asphyxia/trauma accounted for 31.6 per cent, prematurity with 24.6 per cent and sepsis with 15.8 per cent cited as the leading causes of neonatal mortality.
A recent review of over 90,000 paediatric admissions in 2018-2020 in 14 Kenyan public hospitals found that neonates (aged 0–28 days) accounted for almost half the admissions.
Neonatal fatality rate in newborn units was high and variable.
“The Ministry renews its commitments to creating an enabling environment for the implementation of the strategy in partnership with the communities and development partners," Patrick Amoth, acting Health director general, said.
"[The partnership also includes the] private sector and other stakeholders to reduce under- five mortality and improve the health of the children of Kenya.”
(edited by Amol Awuor)