Top causes of hospital visits in 2022 revealed
A scene of a road crash in Uasin Gishu in November 2022. There was a spike in accident hospitalisations last year.
More Kenyans suffered injuries from accidents in 2022, with the number of hospital admissions increasing from the previous years.
The data in the Economic Survey 2023, which was released last week, revealed that in 2021, the country recorded about 243, 391 injuries from road accidents.
The number increased to 1.6 million admissions in 2022, contributing to two percent of disease morbidity in the country from 0.3 percent.
Road accidents have claimed many lives. The most recent one was in the Homa Bay-Kendu Bay road accident on Friday that claimed the lives of at least seven people.
The scenes leave behind many casualties who have to brave the scars on their bodies.
Many Kenyans have expressed concern over the continued rise in road deaths in the country, with many calling on the need to enforce the Road Traffic Act to enhance road safety.
The survey also revealed that more Kenyans are suffering from skin diseases, with the number increasing from 3.7 million in 2021 – which amounted to four percent – to nine million in 2022, which was equivalent to 10 percent.
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Joint pains also contributed to 1.6 million cases reported in 2022 from 550,000 cases in 2021, with diarrhoea diseases increasing from 3.2 million to 4 million.
The number of Kenyans suffering from urinary tract infections increased from 3.4 million in 2021 to 3.9 million in 2022.
Pneumonia cases shot up by over 400,000: from 2.5 million in 2021 to 2.9 million in 2022.
Pneumonia accounts for 16 percent of all child deaths in Kenya, and it is the second killer of children under five. The pneumonia burden is attributed to inadequate access to healthcare and poor health-seeking by caregivers.
According to the Ministry of Health data released last year, Narok, Samburu, West Pokot, Marsabit and Mandera recorded high cases of pneumonia while Kericho, Kisumu, West Pokot, Laikipia, Samburu, Kitui, Nyeri, Nairobi and Uasin Gishu registered the highest neonatal deaths.
The ministry indicated that despite numerous interventions together with partners, pneumonia remained a nightmare to thousands of Kenyan children under the age of five, with only 33 percent getting the appropriate
Respiratory diseases include asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary fibrosis, pneumonia, and lung cancer. Also called lung disorder and pulmonary disease.
Intestinal worms and eye infections contributed to over 1.7 million disease cases respectively in the country in 2022.
There was a reduction in the number of people that went to hospital suffering from diseases of the respiratory system from 20.6 million in 2021 to 17.1 million in 2022 though still leading in disease caseload.
The diseases of the respiratory system accounted for the highest disease caseload at 19.5 percent followed by malaria at 11.7 percent in 2022.
From the outpatient disease caseload reported in health facilities, the total cases of diseases reported in health facilities decreased by 6.9 percent from 94.3 million in 2021 to 87.8 million in 2022.
The proportion of registered nurses increased from 155 per 100,000 people in 2021 to 161 in 2022.
Last year, graduate nurses increased by 9.1 percent to 9, 937 while registered nurses increased by 6.1 percent to 81,564.
The total number of middle-level medical trainees at Kenya Medical Training College increased by 48 per cent to 23,286 and the middle-level medical graduates increased by 26 per cent to 15,636 in the 2021/22 academic year.
The number of undergraduate and postgraduate health sciences students in universities increased by 21 percent to 28,024.
The number of health facilities increased by 2.2 percent to 16,517 while hospital beds increased by five percent to 94,925 while hospital costs grew by 4.7 percent to 10,306.
“The health sector is an important contributor to the national economic growth and in the realisation for the sustainability of the nation’s human capital base,” says the survey.
