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Five new public health laboratories will be put up to speed up diagnosis and surveillance...

Five new public health laboratories will be put up to speed up diagnosis and surveillance of diseases. This is intended to reduce pressure on existing laboratories, which are mainly in Nairobi's Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri), said Dr Willis Akhwale, the head of the department of disease prevention and control in the Public Health ministry.

"As a ministry, we are looking at how better diagnostic technology is to be brought closer to the community and this means decentralising the public health laboratories.

"At the moment, the labs are centralised in Nairobi at the Kenya Medical Research Institute and the US-based Centres for Disease Control (CDC)," said Dr Akhwale.

He said the project, to be funded mainly by donors, is expected to start by the end of the year.

Dr Akhwale was speaking at Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort in Mombasa during a scientific conference attended by medical and public health experts from several African countries.

Also in attendance are experts from the livestock and veterinary departments. The conference is aimed at bringing a closer working relationship between the various groups that deal in human and animal health.

Dr Akhwale said nurses to be recruited by the government this financial year would be posted to rural areas.

The hiring of 4,000 nurses this financial year at the constituency level is meant to boost prevention measures and control of diseases such as cholera, swine flu and malaria.

The nurses will be working closely with community health workers at the grass roots level to strengthen the community approach to disease control.