Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Health Dr Cleopa Mailu alongside Professor Joel Breman of the International Certification Team Mission, November 29, 2017. [Photo/MoH]
The International Certification Team Mission is in the country to assess whether Kenya can be certified to be Guinea Worm free.
The team led by Professor Joel Breman will be in the country until December 20, to assess the country’s guinea worm report which was submitted to the World Health Organization in July 2016 and subsequently updated in August 2017.
The Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Health Dr Cleopa Mailu welcomed the team and pledged the government’s support during the assessment period.
“At this stage of the eradication programme in Kenya, the current evaluation mission is in itself a significant milestone, after 23 years of the report of the last indigenous case in the country,” said Dr Mailu.
The CS said it will be a significant and historic public health achievement in Kenya and the world should Kenya be declared free of Guinea worm disease following the evaluation.
Dr Mailu also hailed the National Certification Committee and all health workers for continuous effort to scale up disease awareness and surveillance to detect and contain any imported case.
“These efforts must continue even after certification, until the whole world is declared free of the disease, more so in Kenya due to neighboring countries which are still endemic,” he said on Wednesday.
Kenya started its long road to be certified for the disease in 1994. The last imported cases were identified and treated in 2005. The National Certification Committee was launched in 2014-20 years after the last indigenous case was reported.
The country’s report was submitted to the World Health Organization in July 2016 and updated in August 2017.
Since then, Kenya has strengthened surveillance for the disease in cross-border areas through dedicated staff, supported by the WHO and UNHCR within refugee camps.