Preventive Health Curricular in Kenya: A Quest for Policy Backup
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Date
2004
Authors
Wamicha, W. N.
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Publisher
Joypet Sevices & Printers Ltd.
Abstract
Going by the WHO 1948 Alma Ata declaration, the current decade (2001 to 2010) was envisioned to be "healthy for all". In Kenya, though some diseases like small pox and polio have since in way been controlled, other challenging health aspects
have emerged. At the same time the health offering institutions are strained in many aspects. In order to respond to these challenges, there is need to review the health policy/legal framework in Kenya. This is therefore a policy analysis work.
During this work, the legal/policy documents were transcribed and commented upon in order to elaborate the legal jargon. The quantitative data from the legal documents was tabulated while the qualitative data was coded and these codes
tabulated. Finally selected tabulated data was illustrated in graphs and charts. Population projections indicate that, some of the trends will have a bearing on the health services. For example, HIV/Aids is expected to cause a lag in the population growth due to its major adverse effects on health. Other aspects that are expected to change are densities per given area and female to male ratios. The Public Health Act of 1986 in Kenya laid a lot of emphasis on the clinical aspects of health. However the existing clinical health institutions in the country are now strained in terms of coping with the daily attendances and due to personnel drain. There is therefore the need to develop other aspects of health especially those dealing with
disease prevention. At the university level, capability to train such personnel in preventive health fields was also analysed. Three universities namely Kenyatta,
Nairobi and Moi do offer high quality programmes in these areas. However in a future health legal/ policy framework, it may be necessary to define more clearly the following; Health Inspection, Community Health, Public Health and Environmental Health.
Description
This paper was presented at the International workshop on ‘Environmental Health Education in the East African Region’ 24th - 26th March 2004 held at Kenyatta University Nairobi, Kenya
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Citation
International workshop on ‘Environmental Health Education in the East African Region’ 24th - 26th March 2004