Treat TB well - stop the imprisonment of TB patients in Kenya

In 2010, two TB patients from Kabsabet in Kenya who were unable to complete their TB treatment were sentenced to eight months in prison as part of the government's aims to avoid spreading the disease among the public. No effort was made to evaluate whether the patients were infectious, or whether less restrictive measures to ensure they completed treatment could be or had been attempted.

But this harsh and unjust sentence didn't take into account the nature of TB, the nature of TB medication or the human rights of the patients. By imprisoning patients who don't take their medicine, the authorities were also risking the spread of TB within prisons and discouraging other TB patients from seeking treatment.

After lobbying from health and human rights groups, and taking the case the Kenyan courts, the two patients were released from prison, but we have heard of other cases of TB patients being imprisoned or threatened with imprisonment in Kenya.
THIS MUST STOP NOW.
We want the Kenyan Government to make a commitment that it will prevent the detention of TB patients in the future by properly educating health officials about how to treat TB patients well, especially those who are unable or are unwilling to take their medication or complete their treatment.
We also demand that the Kenyan Government takes urgent action on TB generally, by:
·         providing clear information to TB patients about how to manage their condition, take their medicine and stay healthy
·         ensuring a holistic approach to TB and disease treatment by acknowledging all social and cultural aspects of patients lives, involving patients in decision making and joining up health and social care services
·         promoting and protecting the right to health as is provided in the Constitution of Kenya, by improving standards of care for all TB patients, allowing them access to free medicine.
·         allocating more resource to Kenya’s health budget, to reduce the reliance on development agencies in the fight against TB – currently around 30 percent of Kenya’s drug resistant Tuberculosis patients are treated by NGOs
·         completing the isolation ward at Kenyatta Hospital that has been under construction since 2005. The isolation ward will provide somewhere for safe treatment for drug resistant TB patients – when necessary.
 ·         developing a clear policy on how to detect and manage patients with XDR-TB
By signing this petition, you are helping give TB patients in Kenya a voice and preventing more people ending up in prison simply because they didn't take their medicine for reasons of absence of support systems, poor information from service providers and unclear policies on isolation of patients.