Deeksha Gupta

Africa is considered the most profitable continent to do business, with great potential for diverse business due to the available resources. This is seen through the number of foreign investors that come to the continent for various business projects. This has led to many countries of Africa becoming more and more open to the rest of the world. Still, Africa has nations that are more economically stable than others. It hosts 21 of the 25 poorest countries globally, making just slightly less than 50% of the continent’s number of countries. With this kind of poverty level, even where healthcare is being considered a priority, it is difficult to meet the required standards of healthcare set by the governments and international bodies. For some of these nations, attaining the SDGs and the UHC goals is a pipe dream. Health infrastructure in these countries is limited. There are records of deaths from diseases that could have been prevented were the requisite healthcare infrastructure and re...

 Since 2009, every year on the 25th of September, the world celebrates World Pharmacist Day. The day was created by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Council at the World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Istanbul, Turkey in 2009.   Every year, the FIP has a theme for the celebration. This year, the theme is “Pharmacy: Always trusted for your health.” With so many different days set aside for different people groups or activities, it would be interesting to know who a pharmacist is and why there would be a theme talking about their work as trusted for people’s health. appreciating the pharmacy departments of hospitals and stand-alone chemists/pharmacies, Jayesh Saini says that this is a group of medics that have a very critical part to play in health service delivery where sometimes it can mean life or death. He pointed out that when a physician issues a prescription for medication to a patient, it is taken to the pharmacist to dispens...

 The COVID-19 pandemic has without a doubt become one of the greatest teachers of our times globally and at local levels that working together yields better returns on efforts put in.   Whereas in the past it has been each health service provider for themselves, collaboration amongst providers has been key in averting deaths and worsening of health conditions. Observing the situation in Kenya, Jayesh Saini, a Kenyan national says that hospitals were reaching out to each for supplies such as oxygen, blood, antibiotics, masks, gloves, and even ICU beds. He pointed out how appeals on social media or other mediums of communication were acted upon with such solidarity, all aimed at saving lives.   Kenyans are known as resilient people who put their differences aside in times of calamity and during this COVID-19 pandemic has been on another level. Individuals and organisations have come out in large numbers to donate blood. For-profit organisations have kept aside their...

 More and more, people are learning great lessons from the current COVID-19 pandemic. There is an exposure to the faults and weaknesses in the health care system, whether in developed or developing economies. The inequalities between the two economies are undeniable in so far as the infrastructure and resources available.   It looks like suddenly decision-makers have realized how important the medical professionals are in the success of health facilities. Interestingly, governments realized that their sometimes-unorthodox way of handling this group of people could not work and many had to accept some demands that had been pending for years just to save lives.   The pandemic has brought to the fore that a good infrastructure without sufficient medical personnel does not take care of patients; both are important and none should be preferred over the other but should be developed together. Governments have had to recall medics from leaves and even hire those who have...

Even with the advancement of free information through many media platforms, there remains a group of people who do not have any trust or confidence in generic drugs. Their outlook is based on the cheaper pricing of the generics and concludes that they must be inferior to branded drugs in quality and efficacy. This has at times caused untold friction between service providers and recipients as when accused of prescribing or dispensing “fake” medications. In some instances, there has been no understanding even when the pharmacists explain that the pricing has nothing to do with the quality or efficacy. There are also those who will adamantly ask for branded drugs because they believe it gives them a higher status. There is still another group that will request generics, by knowledge and others because it is much cheaper than brand. So why all the confusion? According to Jayesh Saini, this is mainly brought about by a lack of proper information to the masses regarding why generics are c...

 Unlike other pandemics experienced globally, the COVID-19 Pandemic has brought into light the misfortune of having delayed communication on what is happening. Over one year later, one of the reasons why some people do not follow instructions given to deter the spread of the virus has been as a result of contradictory information being released by governments and healthcare decision-makers.   This has unfortunately led to conspiracy theories taking place amid truths, and the theorists seem to have been more forceful in their campaigns. For example, it is common knowledge that developing vaccines normally takes years of R&D before a vaccine can be rolled out to the masses. The duration for the COVID-19 vaccines to be researched, developed, manufactured, tested, and rolled out took less than a couple of months. The relevant bodies, in the worst-case scenario, should have explained to the masses what is different about this particular virus/vaccine, besides the magnitud...

With various models of payments for health services, the world over in general and Kenyans in particular, people are always seeking ways to beat the systems for maximum advantage. This queer behavior has infiltrated the health industry. Unfortunately, the enrolled members who are players in this unfortunate game have not understood the adverse effect of their actions, on themselves and on the entire health service delivery cycle. Some patients will move from one facility to another to get treatment for the same condition to get the same drugs; the intention is to sell the drugs for a few bucks, without realizing that they are depleting their own cover amounts. When they have a medical need, they realise they do not have enough balance and unfortunately, they already used the money they got from the illegal transaction for other purposes. Consider a scenario where a patient knows that they have unlimited access to their medical cover. There are those who will unnecessarily go to the...