The Cabinet Secretary for Health Dr Deborah Mulongo Barasa on Monday met with the leadership of Kenya National Public Health Institute (NPHI) in a move geared towards solidfying Kenya’s pursuit of safeguarding lives by defending against existing and emerging public health threats.
Dr Barasa while acknowledging the significant role played by NPHI to tackle public health challenges and strengthen disease surveillance, prevention, and response emphasised on the need to promote public health issues by consolidating the management and coordination of key activities in prevention, and early detection.
Speaking at Afya house in a meeting that was also attended by Principal Secretary of Public Health and Professional Standards Mary Muthoni as well as Health Director General Dr Patrick Amoth, the CS reiterated her commitment of supporting the institute in realisation of its expected mandate of addressing the current and future public health emergencies such as the current MPOX scourge.
“Health security and public health emergency preparedness is a key focus of the government following lessons learned during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The National Public Health Institute was established in 2022 to support these efforts.Met the board for a briefing on the milestones realized towards full functioning of the institute and discussed key priorities” read her tweet
Acting Director General for NPHI Dr Maureen Kamene on her part noted that Kenya is on the right trajectory in its efforts to effectively prevent, detect, and respond to public health threats through various mechanisms including vigilant surveillance, evidence-based scientific innovations, and nurturing proficient, adaptable public health systems.
“NPHI is important and establishment of structures and operationalizing strategies to enhance national capacities for future pandemic preparedness and response is key.The initiative will form the basis of health security in the country through effective means of coordinating a country’s public health structure and operations and improving population health besides playing a robust role in effective prevention, detection, and response to public health threats” remarked Dr Kamene
NPHI established through a presidential executive order is a science-driven institution that lead and coordinate essential public health functions, typically operating within the government under the Ministry of Health.
Her words were reiterated by Board Chairman Dr David Ndegwa Nyokabi who affirmed the critical role played by NPHI in health policy-setting and decision-making through generating, synthesizing, and interpreting public health data to make timely recommendations.
The Board members present thanked the CS for extending her gesture of goodwill by meeting them and further assuring them of her unequivocal support in their quest to help analyze,plan,develop and operationalize essential public health functions by providing timely,accurate information and data analysis including on the evolving epidemiology of outbreaks and on the status of outbreak control.
Once fully empowered with adequate
resources and staff for its fully functioning,the institute will be an integral part in the fight against Kenya’s diverse threats to public health including infectious disease outbreaks, natural hazards, the health consequences of climate change, wars, among others.
Among the priorities they seek adressed by the Government is the approval of organizational structure and operational instruments (PSC),transition of functions from MOH to NPHI as per the legal notice article No 25,development and approval of NPHI Strategic Plan,Bill and Policy and development of the National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS).
Since its inception to consolidate and coordinate key activities in public health, including prevention, early
detection of public health emergencies, and events of concern,NPHI has achieved milestones such as Cabinet approval for its operationalization,establishment and publication of the first NPHI board and forging partnerships and linkages with various stakeholders among others.
Public health emergencies erase hard-won development gains, disrupt health systems and hinder progress, significantly reducing the resilience of both health systems and communities. Globally, approximately 362 million people are directly affected by public health emergencies annually resulting from natural and human-made hazards.
The COVID-19 pandemic for example overloaded public health systems worldwide. Countries without a centralized coordination point for scientific expertise and public health systems were less effective and efficient during a public health emergency.
