Public Health Officers have called on the government to hire more officers and technicians to meet the needs of the growing population.
The Association of Public Health Officers on Wednesday also called for the promotion of officers who have stagnated in one job group for more than four years.
Their call comes as the country battles an outbreak of cholera disease that has so far claimed more than 121 lives according to the cholera outbreak daily situation report
The association secretary general Mohamed Duba said currently, one public health officer serves a population of 10,000 while one public health technician serves a population of 5,000, creating a shortfall of about 30,000 PHOs and 5,000 technicians.
He said despite the cadre playing an important role in the eradication of communicable diseases, there has been no employment of PHOs for the last two decades both at national and county levels.
“It should be noted that no replacement of PHOs and technicians who left service through retirement, attrition and death for the last 20 years,” Duba said.
“The country continues training this important cadre at all levels but not absorbing them into public service.”
According to the SG, the emerging and re-emerging diseases like cholera which are currently being experienced in the country that has led to unnecessary loss of lives and closure of schools are a result of the shift in focus from preventive and promotive health to curative medicine.
The contribution of public health officers is of essential significance in both the preparedness planning process and the reaction to health risks.
Thus, PHOs on various levels have to be engaged in all stages of the planning process for public health crisis control.
They are tasked with directing or controlling prevention programmes in specialized areas such as infectious diseases and developing tools to address behavioural causes of diseases.
“It is important to underscore that over 90 per cent of preventive measures are carried out by PHOs and technicians. We therefore should be given the highest priority both financially and in the deployment of human health workforce throughout the country,” he said.
The global Smallpox eradication campaign in Kenya that has led to the end of the disease was headed by PHOs.
