While all eyes are on the election debacle in Zimbabwe, another election disaster was restored this weekend when Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki stood alongside opposition leader Raila Odinga (Orange Democratic Movement) after a successful deal to form a coalition government. Right up to the last minute, agreement looked unlikely as both sides were unable to agree on how to share power. But reason, common sense, and humanity prevailed and on Sunday President Kibaki congratulated Mr Odinga for “upholding the spirit of dialogue which enabled us to unlock the political deadlock.”

Although this political unity is cause for celebration and hope, the effects of the weeks of violence and unrest should not be overlooked. Kenya is ranked 10^th out of the 22 countries in the world that account for 80% of the global TB burden and thanks to the recent violence, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, increasing the risk of multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB. Poor sanitation, overcrowding in displacement camps, and moving from one camp to another have all helped to increase the number of MDR TB infections. Local health workers are concerned about the situation and The Ministry of Health has stressed the need to deal with the rise of MDR TB which can cost up to $ 10 000 per patient.

A recent WHO report documented the global prevalence of MDR TB  which is not very encouraging. Now that the violence has ended in Kenya, and international attention has been diverted, will the international community once again turn away, or will it try to help Kenya stop this latest post-election-violence-related spread of MDR TB? Unfortunately, I think I know the answer to that one. Rhona MacDonald

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.