Afya House must be at centre of providing direction in health matters

A recent health survey commissioned by the Standard Group indicates high awareness levels about the deadly Ebola virus. It demonstrates that approximately 81 per cent of Kenyans know Ebola is a dangerous disease that has caused numerous deaths in West Africa. This is indeed welcome because it indicates that a campaign by the Ministry of Health to create awareness is gaining traction.

No doubt the Ministry has come out looking more professional after it mishandled the controversy over the tetanus vaccine stoked by the Catholic Church. This month, the church kicked up a storm when it claimed that the vaccine was secretly being used to sterlise women.

It, quite convincingly, stated that the tetanus vaccine contains hormones which prevent women who have been exposed to it from bearing children by causing the foetus to abort. The bishops caught Ministry officials unawares by proffering what they said was evidence collected by a panel of medical experts. This contradicted the position taken by the Ministry of Health—however the ministry was unable to provide evidence to support its position.

This is not the first time to have a run-in between the Church and the Government. In 1995, a similar campaign was stopped by the World Health Organisation after the Church demanded that a similar programme it sponsored, be tested independently. The WHO noted that it had carried out similar campaigns in Mexico in 1993 and the following year the vaccination campaigns were carried out in Philippines and Nicaragua.

Thankfully, the matter will be put to rest tomorrow when a joint team looking into the tetanus vaccine saga releases new test results. When these test results are announced, we will need to know the scientific process that was used to arrive at the findings.

We will need to know the technology applied; the samples used and how they were collected and handled. This scientific protocol must be laid out for scrutiny.

If, and this is improbable, the test results come out positive and indicate there are agents in the vaccine that are harmful to human health, medical experts must quickly find out how this could have happened and, more important, whether there are any women whose reproductive health may have been compromised.

If, as is likely, the test results are negative, the team must also find out the source and intent of the misinformation campaign and indicate a clear cause of action.

The message that must go out there in this scenario is that the tetanus vaccine is good technology, which was contaminated with either bad science or misinformation.

Tetanus kills thousands of people worldwide and in 2010, about 61,000 died, therefore, the immunization campaign must not stop. An ordinary tetanus shot can protect a person for 10 years, with a booster available for those who have suffered an injury.

We must be cognizant that the Ministry of Health is at the forefront of providing direction and guidance on health issues—especially now that the Ebola outbreak is spreading across Africa. If the disease was to find its way into Kenya, the Health Ministry must be in a position to give guidance and direction where its statements are viewed as credible.

When there is a pandemic—especially when the pathogen is as virulent as Ebola— the speed and clarity of the communication process is of essence. The ramifications of the absence of a clear, systematic and credible communication process are too grim to contemplate.

Therefore, the Health Ministry must invest in ensuring that its communication processes are sound and its credibility cannot be questioned.