Inter Press Service: Accelerating Universal Health Coverage in Kenya — How do we get there?
Werner Schultink, UNICEF representative to Kenya; Rudi Eggers, WHO representative to Kenya; and Siddharth Chatterjee, U.N. resident coordinator to Kenya

“…How do we ensure that [universal health coverage (UHC)] is possible in Kenya by 2022? … The focus has to be on preventable and primary health care as emphasized in the Alma-Ata principles. The centrality of reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child, and adolescent health will be critical to achieving UHC. … The following low cost high-impact interventions will leapfrog UHC. … 1. 100 percent immunization coverage. 2. Scaling up maternal and child health … 3. Prevention of water borne, vector borne, TB and HIV, and sexually transmitted diseases. 4. Prevention of non-communicable diseases … 5. Improving nutrition of women who conceive and follow this through to the first five years of a child’s life. These five actions will not only help achieve universal primary health coverage within five years, but reduce the number of patients going into the referral systems. It will reinforce the famous adage, ‘prevention is better than cure’…” (3/27).