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Kenya to strengthen health system to boost diseases surveillance

Xinhua, May 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

A Kenyan health official said on Thursday the country will strengthen the National Health Information System in order to boost disease surveillance.

Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Dr Nicholas Muraguri told a media briefing in Nairobi that the new system is being developed by local and international partners.

"The new health system will allow health officials to have real time information of diseases prevalence before they became outbreaks," Muraguri said during the launch of the upgraded National Health Information System.

Muraguri said that new health system will receive inputs from hospitals across the country. "The government will therefore be able to mount responses to diseases before they spread across the general population," he said.

Ministry of health together with donors has in the past two years installed Information Communication Technology (ICT) in 12 counties.

"These infrastructure developments are in line with the national economic blueprint to digitize health facilities in order to increase access to specialized care through e-referral and telemedicine," he added.

Muraguri said that the government is in search of good evidence to support decision making at all levels of health management.

"We recognize the need for an integrated system to provide good healthcare to Kenyans effectively and efficiently as a significant contribution to the achievement of the recently launched Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," he said.

Experts have observed that most major improvements in health over the past two or three centuries were largely based on the collection and application of health information.

The PS said that data on health determinants including lifestyle factors such as smoking provide the basis for effective measures for the improvement of population health.

Kenya recently launched the Managed Equipment Services project that provides specialized diagnostic and treatment across the 47 counties.

"Such investment requires internet connectivity for their usefulness to be realized," the PS noted. Endit