The county has a population of 340,671 persons (Census). The county has a total of 73 government managed public health facilities classified into four (4) Level 4 hospitals, nine (9) health centers and sixty-one (61) dispensaries and ninety-three (93) Community Units (CUs) located in Voi, Mwatate, Wundanyi and Taveta constituencies. Currently the County has 1542 health workers who include 23 medical consultants ,47 General Medical officers 151 clinical officers and 481 nurses spread across public health facilities. There is however a shortage of 1706 heath personnel who will ensure quality of health services with an estimated population of 377656, the doctor-population ratio stands at 1:6191, falling short by far, of the 1:600 standard set by the World Health Organization (WHO). Even inclusion of clinical officers does not lead to improvement of the situation greatly, as the ratio comes to 1:1833. The Nurse-population ratio stands at 1:741.

The County has 1394 Community Health Promoters (CHPs) who conduct referral and health promotion activities at the community level.

Five Most Common Diseases in Order of Prevalence

The Most prevalent diseases in the County are Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (URTI) at 69% Skin infections 12%, Urinary Tract Infection 8%, Arthritis, Joint Pains 6% and Diarrhoea 5%.

According, to the three anthropometric indices of nutritional status of children i.e. height for age (stunting), weight for height (wasting), and weight for age (underweight), the percentage of children under 5 years classified as malnourished is 19.2%, 4.2% and 12.6% respectively for the three indicators above.

Immunization rate for fully immunized children stands at 85% (KDHS, 2022) in the County. Those who have been vaccinated against measles and BCG are 96.5% and 98.4% respectively.

Free maternity services realized significant progress, delivery by skilled attendants increased up to 96% (KDHS, 2022). New Ante Natal Care visits stands at 80.6% and mothers completing 4 anti-natal care visits stands at 64.9%. Those women who use modern contraceptives stand at 65% (KDHS, 2022)

The HIV prevalence rate in the County currently stands at 3.4% as per NACC 2022 Estimates, The number of people living with HIV (PLHIV) is approximately 8883. Those on HAART  7249. The rate of new HIV infections among the population has Increased among the youth. However, the new infections vary per sub-county, with the majority of the new infections coming from Voi sub-county due to ongoing economic activities. The number of HIV positive mothers receiving ARVs has increased from 402 in 2016/17 to 514 in 2022/23 due to improved targeted testing.

TB Case Notification rate and TB services

The Kenya prevalence survey of 2016 estimates TB burden to be 426/100,000 population, however as a County our Case Notification Rate (CNR) for year 2022 was at 173/100,000 population.

We have a total of 69 TB treatment sites and 48 diagnostics sites (That is facilities able to do microscopy for TB testing, GeneXpert testing or Truenat for TB). This translates to 69.6% coverage for TB diagnostic services in the County. There are two GeneXpert machines which perform molecular tests, at Taveta and MCRH Voi. Both machines are currently functional. We have Truenat TB machines which are molecular TB tests in Wesu SCH and Mwatate SCH

X-ray services are also crucial in supporting screening for TB. Currently available functional

public X-ray services are offered at Taveta SCH, Wesu SCH and MCRH Voi. The other TB diagnostic tests are offered for free, however clients have to pay for X-ray services with exception of presumptive TB cases aged 0-14yrs who are supported until December 2023 by Global Fund project and contacts of DR TB patients who will be supported with X-ray services

by the project till end of June 2024.

Malaria Status

Our County falls under coast endemic zone and benefits from Mass Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) Campaign which happens every 3 years, and routine ITNs distribution to pregnant women and children under 1year as an intervention for malaria control and prevention. The County has a child use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN) coverage of 83% (KDHS, 2022)