In an interview by CNBC Africa, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum 2017 in Davos, Switzerland, Mr. Chatterjee discusses the milestones registered so far in Kenya's quest for universal healthcare as well as opportunities worth exploring. He also talks about the need to focus on women and the youth of Africa.
Kenya is amongst the 10 most dangerous countries for pregnant women. Between 6000 and 8000 women die every year during childbirth; the current maternal mortality rate is 488 deaths per 100,000 live births. Kenya has made little progress in reducing this to achieve the commitment set in the Millennium Development Goals of 147 deaths per 100,000.
However, thanks to the introduction of free maternity services for women by the Government of Kenya in 2013, Kenya’s dire maternal death rate may finally begin to fall.
Africa’s quest for health continues to be held back by a combination of factors such as natural disasters and pandemics, prevailing high rates of communicable and rising incidence of non-communicable diseases, sedentary lifestyles, road accidents and greater population mobility.
With the region accounting for approximately a quarter of the world’s disease burden and just 3 percent of its doctors, it is difficult to be optimistic about the future.
Recently, some of us from the Stanford University and U.C. Berkeley community had the privilege of hosting Siddharth Chatterjee, the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Kenya and his team at the Silicon Valley, where he spoke at the 2018 African Diaspora Investment Symposium. The Kenya team also met with academics, Directors of Centers and students as well as some of brilliant technology leaders in Silicon Valley at Facebook and Google.
Consider this: As per a study by the World Bank, had the world addressed 90 percent of global unmet need for family planning by 2015, it would have reduced annual births by almost 28 million, consequently preventing 67,000 maternal deaths, 440,000 neonatal deaths, 473,000 child deaths and 564,000 stillbirths.
Consider this: every year, nearly 1 million Kenyans are pushed below the poverty line as a result of unaffordable health care expenses.
For many Kenyan families, the cost of health care is as distressing as the onset of illness and access to treatment. A majority of the population at risk can hardly afford the costs associated with basic health care and when faced with life threatening conditions, it is a double tragedy-inability to access health care and lack of resources to pay for the services.
The increased budgetary allocations to the health sector by county governments point to an acknowledgement not only of the enormous challenges facing the sector, but also of good health as a prerequisite to overall development.
There has never been a better time for partnerships that harness the power of business to drive prosperity by tackling health challenges. The combination of a growing population and preventable infections means that companies with a focus on solving consumer challenges can expect to record impressive profits while at the same time serving a social good.
Mandera’s double whammy, the concurrent outbreaks of cholera and chikungunya, is bringing to the fore the need for accelerated epidemic preparedness and prevention systems. Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease that can kill within hours if left untreated.
Chikungunya virus is most often spread to people by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. These are the same mosquitoes that transmit dengue ,yellow fever and zika virus. Its symptoms include high fever, joint pain, rash and headache. There is no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat chikungunya virus infection.
For the community of Mandera, a remote Northern frontier town in Kenya, long resigned to years of what they felt was neglect, the pomp associated with hosting Ambassadors for the first time was reason enough for evident optimism about the future.
The Ambassadors of Turkey, Sweden, the European Union, Denmark and Finland to Kenya and the Executive Director of UNFPA were in Mandera in November 2015 to launch a Community Life Center and join the First Lady of Kenya for the Beyond Zero campaign.
Mandera in north-eastern Kenya, has often been described as “the worst place on earth to give birth.” Mandera’s maternal mortality ratio stands at 3,795 deaths per 100,000 live births, almost double that of wartime Sierra Leone at 2,000 deaths per 100,000 live births.
