Turkana Central sub-county has 43 functional health facilities, with a distance of about 25–30 km between them, making accessibility for essential services a nightmare for the majority of our residents. To reach all the population, integrated outreaches play a key role in improving in our performance indicators as a sub-county.
As a sub-county, Turkana Central appreciates RMF for coming on board and upscaling outreach activities to 12 sites, which are undertaken monthly through the sub-county MOH office. These outreaches will improve the performance of MNH indicators, nutrition, HIV services, and general public health through health education and talks.
Health education is key to improving health seeking behavior and the general wellbeing of the community.
General hygiene and sanitation were covered at some sites.
Importance of immunization, ANC attendance, and family planning were also covered at other sites.
The aim of nutrition screening is to support growth and development milestones for children and also support pregnant women to prevent pregnancy-related complications.
Most malnutrition cases were in Ngimuriae and Nangolpus (areas in Kerio Division, where the nutrition survey report also singled out the most cases).
Cases screened were managed and scheduled for monthly reviews to monitor their progress.
138 children were fully immunized, accounting for 30.7% of our monthly target.
44 children received OPV 3 antigen.
42 and 48 received PENTA 1 and 3 respectively.
A total of 549 adults and children received general treatment. Referrals for conditions that could not be managed in the field were issued and followed up by the community health volunteers.
A total of 289 children received Vitamin A supplementation.
94 lactating mothers received supplementation.
Deworming is a major gap in our sub-county. The outreaches will highly boost the indicator, even as we try to reach as many children as possible. It’s one of the indicators in which we performed dismally at the just concluded annual county review meeting.
A majority of pregnant women come to only one ANC appointment late in their pregnancy. As a sub-county, 4th ANC coverage for 2016 was 45%. To improve 4th ANC coverage, outreaches will play a key role in reaching as many mothers as possible. This can be achieved by line listing all the mothers who came for ANC at the facility and then follow up with them during outreaches. The outreaches will target all the mothers who usually do not access services.
45 pregnant women received tetanus toxoid vaccination.
29 were new ANC patients.
5 completed a 4th ANC visit.
A total of 201 pregnant women received iron and folate supplementation (IFAS).
Turkana Central has an estimated population of 211,280.