Public Health Officers have broken their silence on the current disease outbreaks that have been reported in schools in the recent past.
The Association of Public Health Officers now says the disease outbreaks are due to the failure of the government to involve them on the decision-making table despite the officers playing a critical role in preventive and promotive health.
The outbreak has since caused four deaths and left several other students hospitalized in Mukumu Girls and Butere Boys High schools in Kakamega.
The contribution of public health officers is of essential significance in both the preparedness planning process and the reaction to health risks.
The association secretary general Mohamed Duba said the situation has been worsened by the few PHOs who are in the country against the recommended number by the World Health Organisation.
“As public health officers, we do school health education. The outbreak in schools now is because there is a shortage of the officers and technicians to be able to move to schools and give the health education,” he said.
“WHO requires that one public officer serves 10,000 population; we have 50 million people but having less than 2,000 PHOs in this country and some counties we have less than 10 PHOs against a massive population.”
Duba noted that despite the rest of the world being focused on preventive and promotive health, the country is investing more in curative medicine which included setting up more health facilities.
Last week, they called on the government to hire more officers and technicians to meet the needs of the growing population and promote those who have stagnated in one job group for more than four years.
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.
