Counties urged to translate home care based isolation guidelines

Health CAS Dr Mercy Mwangangi is urging counties to translate the Home Based and Isolation Care (HBIC) guidelines that have been translated to Kiswahili to local languages.

Speaking Wednesday during the COVID-19 daily briefing Dr Mwangangi said Kenya is the only Country in the region that is implementing the program as one of the case management strategies to combat the Coronavirus disease, in line with WHO guidelines.

“These guidelines have been developed taking into consideration of our local socio economic situation. “ She said.

The Ministry of Health launched the Home-Based Isolation and Care protocols, on 10th June 2020.

Currently, the available data in the country shows that 78 per cent of the infected persons, admitted in hospitals are either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and therefore can be managed at home provided proper laid down procedures are followed.

The Home-Based Isolation and Care Guidelines dictate these procedures and the guidelines expound on key areas that include eligibility, care procedures, medical monitoring, referral system to health facilities when the need arises, criteria for determining recovery and community participation among others.

She added that the Ministry of Health is already training Healthcare Workers and Community Health volunteers to educate the caregivers/ households about home based care and isolation programme.

Adding that the initial training, targets high risk counties and will eventually be rolled out to all the affected counties.

“Asymptomatic patients put on the home based program, will be discharged at least 14 days from the date of their first COVID-19 test, a period during which they should not have symptoms.”She said.

The focus of the home based training is to build capacity at household’s level to take care of COVID-19 patients at home.

The course covers eligibility, feasibility and procedures of the program, with eventual monitoring and evaluation.

Eligible patients for the home based program must be assessed by a healthcare worker, be confirmed as COVID-19 positive, and also be asymptomatic, or with mild symptoms of the virus. Such patients should be free of any underlying conditions.

Home-based care in the informal settlements where households share small spaces will require identification of institutions within the community that meet the recommendations for providing such care and herein. ‘Nyumba Kumi’ Initiative can play a role in supporting the care in the community

“However, mild symptomatic patients will only be discharged if they have not developed fever for at least 72 hours, without medication. In the event that one’s condition deteriorates, then they should call 719, or send a SMS to *719#, or, notify the designated health care worker.” She added.

Protocols and guidelines on home based care can be found on the Ministry’s website. http://health.go.ke.

Kenya’s coronavirus cases are now 5,206 after 254 more patients tested positive from a sample size of 4,859 carried out in the last twenty four hours.

41 patients have also been discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 1,823.

Number of fatalities also rose to 130 after two more patients succumbed to the disease.