The government is seemingly overwhelmed by the increasing numbers of Covid-19 cases in the country.
To respond to an already overstretched healthcare system, Ministry of Health acting Director-General Patrick Amoth on Sunday, June 7 announced guidelines for home-based care of Covid-19 patients.
"The first guideline is that you must have a Covid-19 report from the laboratory. Secondly, you must be asymptomatic or have a very mild form of the disease based on triaging of the doctors and clinicians.
"Three is that you must have no existing comorbidity like High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, chronic chest problem, chronic clinic problems and the likes," explained Amoth.
This comes just three days after Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said that hospitals will be discharging asymptomatic Covid-19 patients to go and recuperate at home hence passing the battle to individuals.
Mr Kagwe said isolation facilities are full and since 80 per cent of the patients in various hospitals are asymptomatic, they may be managed from home.
“If this is implemented, it would free our health facilities from congestion. We’re looking into developing home-based and community care, provided that it’s in accordance with World Health Organisation protocols, which we’re currently reviewing and domesticating in line with our situation,” Mr Kagwe said.
What this means is that many people who are in various isolation facilities will be released to be taken care of at home.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) came up with new guidelines regarding home base care and discharging of Covid-19 patients from healthcare facilities.
The fourth guideline is that one must have adequate space, preferably a separate space from the rest of the household members, where one will be able to stay during isolation.
The isolation room must also be well ventilated so as to reduce the risk of spread of the highly infectious disease.
Strict adherence to infection control prevention guidelines was the fifth measure which includes washing hands, use of sanitisers, having a mask for the patient together with the caregiver.
The sixth guideline allowed no visiter to the particular room except the caregiver. While the seventh guideline made it mandatory for the patient to have access to PPEs like gloves, a thermometer to check the temperature.
The eighth measure noted that the patient must have a plan for a referral in case one's condition changes. One must identify a facility in which they can quickly be referred to if further care is provided.
The last guideline was ensuring the patient has a proper waste disposal system and separate cutlery for use to limit the spread of the disease.
The community-based health workers will also be taken to thorough training before the home-based care is adopted by the Ministry.
Home-based care is not a new measure implemented during pandemics as it was also used during the HIV pandemic when hospitals were overwhelmed.
Before a patient was released after testing negative one was kept for 14 days then a first test was done and another after 24 hours.
The test used in terms of Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) picked a particular virus but it could not be able to discriminate whether this virus is infectious or not.
Amoth noted that patients could now be released sooner from quarantine facilities using new studies from the WHO.
"After the 10 days even if you continue to secrete the virus those are likely to be breakdown products of the virus that are not infectious.
"This could see patients being released after 10 days if one does not inhibit symptoms like cough and fever for home-based isolation and care," concluded Amoth.
