Public Health and Sanitation Minister Mrs. Beth Mugo has dismissed so-called traditional and faith healers saying the government would not allow them to mislead the public that they can cure all sorts of illness.
Speaking in Machakos in celebrations to mark the World Tuberculosis Day Mrs. Mugo said the faith and traditional healers posed a threat to the health of Kenyans.
She said claims that the healers could cure all manner of diseases including known epidemics like HIV/Aids and Tuberculosis by praying facilitated transmission of the illnesses to other people.
"It is bad for pastors and traditional healers to tell people they can heal all diseases and ask them to quit drugs. Get prayed for but continue taking your medicines. This is a lie that is causing confusion among people", said Mrs. Mugo.
Mrs Mugo dismissed reports in a section of the media that a doctor in Loliondo, Tanzania was curing all illness by giving some herb from a poisonous tree to the patients and asked the Tanzanian Government to close down the place and ban people from visiting the "healer".
"When we meet with health ministers from the East African Community soon in Burundi, I will ask the Tanzanian health minister to lock up that man and close down his outfit. People going there will come back to spread diseases like TB and HIV/Aids much further", she said.
She said the Government was also monitoring television and radio preachers who claim to heal all diseases with a view to taking an appropriate action to avoid the spread of diseases and creation of confusion on use of medicines in the country.
The minister ordered public health Permanent Secretary (PS) Dr Mark Bor to ask such a healer camping outside Afya House to relocate to a different place.
She also asked Machakos District Commissioner (DC) Mr. Kamau wa Kobia to remove healers and their signboards posted outside Machakos General Hospital to a different place.
"We are not at war with traditional healers and faith healers because we know some traditional herbs may treat some ailments but not all. However, our people must use conventional medicines that have been proved to cure diseases rather than leaving our people t the mercy of witchdoctors and pastors claiming to have healing powers", she said.
She said that while Christians and other religious groups were free to attend healing prayers, those sick with diseases like Tuberculosis and HIV/Aids and other terminal illnesses needed to visit qualified medical personnel.
As the world marked the TB Day a report released by the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)promises new diagnostic test that will finally help detect more people with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), increasing the urgency to solve major problems around the pricing and supply of DR-TB medicines.
According to the report, DR-TB is on the rise, but less than 7% of 440,000 new cases each year receive treatment with the disease killing 150,000 people annually.
The treatment of DR-TB relies on old antibiotics, many of which have severe side effects, ranging from constant nausea to deafness, and must be taken as complex regimens - patients must take up to 17 pills every day for up to two years.
However, these are the only drugs that exist today that can tackle DR-TB. MSF's report shows that these drugs are riddled with persistent supply and price problems that must be urgently addressed.
Additionally, MSF's report found that several DR-TB medicines are very expensive, with prices for two drugs having increased by more than 600% and one drug by more than 800% over the last decade.
A 24-month DR-TB treatment regimen can cost as much as US$9,000 for one patient - 470 times more than the $19 per patient it costs to cure standard, drug-sensitive TB.
Meanwhile failure by patients to adhere to prescriptions has led to emergence of multi drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) in Homa Bay District.
The district has recorded the highest default rate at 7%, complicating efforts to fight the disease.
The high prevalence rate of HIV/Aids has further compounded the war against the killer disease, said area officer in charge of Leprosy and TB Apollo Odongo.
Speaking at Rodi market during the World TB Day, Odongo said some 1, 165 cases of the TB have been reported in the district.
He described the district as one of the areas with the highest number of TB patients living with the HIV/ Aids virus saying the co-infection rate stands at 80% against the national figure of 60%.
The medic said treatment of the MDR TB was too expensive with Ksh 1.3 million required to treat one case and appealed to all stakeholders to contribute towards the prevention and treatment of the disease saying the responsibility should not be left to the Ministry of Health alone.
Source: KBC