Health Information in Kenya

Blue Trunk Library Launched at the Kilifi District Hospital

2008-04-02T22:30:00.000-07:00

The Blue trunk library was launched at the Kilifi District Hospital yesterday 2 April 2008.

Board cracks whip on quacks

2007-11-20T06:31:00.000-08:00

Recent reports suggest that there has been an influx of medical quacks operating as qualified health care providers in Kenya.Since January to November 2007, 148 medical facilities have been closed down for reasons such as operating without a license, lack of incinerators, unqualified personnel, poor ventilation and operating in residential areas.

NOTICE! Upgrade your skills or be locked out

2007-11-20T06:12:00.000-08:00

The Kenya Medical Practitioners & Dentist Board (KMPDB) has announced that it will not renew licenses for medical practitioners who fail to undertake Continuing professional development(CPD) courses.
According to the board's guidelines,registered practitioners should accumulate a minimum of five CPD units per year for their licenses to be renewed.In instances where practitioners are registered in two professions, they are required to obtain a minimum of five CPD units per profession per 12-month period.

Insecticide and DDT

2007-11-13T02:33:00.000-08:00

I dont have a gmail account and I do not have the time now to register. I wanted to start a discussion on the issue of insecticides and DDT, maybe you can post it yourself.

Malaria has had a huge toll on the African population and has significantly retarded the developing world economies since the 60s. We are however falling over our feet to adhere to Developed world regulations on exports to make sure that our crops and flowers do not include DDT and other insecticides which we now know have minimal dangers compared to the devastating effects of malaria. What if we sprayed ourselves silly like they sometimes do in the US of A and got rid of malaria and by extension saved on devastating morbidity and mortality and rescued huge chunks of our economies. Is the potential loss in export earnings greater than the savings we will make on our economies? Dont manufactured goods rather than agricultural products for export provide more value to growth anyway? And do we really have to cut off our limbs to "save the environment" at the behest of developed world while they are smoking the world away and "global burning" us which actually means more diseases including malaria? I say we spray to Kingdom come!

Mobile Mammography unit is flagged off in Kenya

2007-11-01T01:15:00.000-07:00

The British High Commissioner to Kenya, Adam Wood on Tuesday 30th October 2007 flagged off the first ever mobile mammography unit in Kenya.This unit,which costs kshs. 8.7 million(US$ 132,000)will provide free breast cancer tests to the poor in rural areas of Kenya.The equipment was donated by the Safaricom Foundation.

Help! Emergency treatment before a patient is referred to a hospital

2007-10-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

A clinician working in a remote health centre in Kenya wants to compile a small handbook of handling emergency cases at the health centre before the patient is referred to the district hospital.This is a case of 'repackaging information' from complex text to simple text in which anyone can use.I have already recommended 'where there is no doctor' but more information is needed by the clinician.Someone out there please help!

Kenyan researchers dont want to publish in local Journals

2007-10-24T01:17:00.000-07:00

Although Kenyan Journals employ the process of peer review to ensure quality of their content, Kenyan scientists don't want to publish in them.

e-medicine will soon be a reality in Kenya

2007-10-19T02:33:00.000-07:00

A leading mobile phone service provider in Kenya has announced plans to roll-out third generation (3G) Mobile services to its clients.Commentators are already speculating that this move will make tele-medicine a reality in Kenya.Most importantly is that the mobile provider also has plans to set up "digital villages' in selected regions of Kenya.

This move provides a great opportunity to health information specialists and other health workers.

Major gains in villagers war against malaria (Adapted from Daily Nation - A kenyan newspaper)

2007-10-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

Story by ANGWENYI GICHANA Publication Date: 10/18/2007
Mrs Esther Keraa Ogeto is a resident of malaria prone Kisii District.

Her family used to experience recurrent malaria attacks, but due measures taken by the Government and its development partners, malaria infections are a thing of the past.
To Mrs Ogeto, 40, the distribution of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) has ended her worst nightmare of malaria infections in her family of six.
“We used to spend a lot of money on treatment. It was a big relief when the nets were introduced,” she added.
“Previously, I used to have malaria infections in my family monthly. But after we started sleeping under treated nets, malaria has become history,” she said at her home in Keuni Village, Bigege sub-location in Mosocho Division.
Mosocho area in Kitutu Chache constituency has been marked out as a malaria prone area.
Mrs Ogeto is the chairperson of Mosocho Enka Enyia, a community based group involved in the fight against female genital mutilation. She works at Fulda Mosocho an NGO, which is also involved in fighting the age-old custom.

Spraying of homes
She says the Ministry of Health also introduced the spraying of homes with anti- mosquitoes chemicals.
She adds: “We have also been trained on health education and more especially malaria prevention by the Ministry of Health personnel. Even my neighbours don‟t complain of malaria attacks these days.”
According to the district public health officer, Mr Francis Makau, more than 400,000 have been distributed in the district. Another 240,000 nets were distributed during the measles campaign, by Population Services International (PSI) and Merlin, an NGO, he said.
“Our statistics show that more than 65 per cent of the population in the district sleep under permanent treated nets. We have distributed the nets to pregnant mothers and children who are under the age of five. This is the most vulnerable group,” he said.
He adds: “Due to the availability of nets in this area, we have managed to scale down malaria drastically. This is the season when we used to have malaria outbreaks, but we are winning the war against malaria.”
Mr Makau said that more 50 per cent of children now slept under nets, compared with less than 10 per cent in 2003.
He said child mortality rate has dramatically reduced since the year 2004. In 2004, he said, 134 children died of malaria while the following year, only 46 died. Last year, the number went down remarkably when only 12 children died.
“We have ITNs in all health facilities in the district, which are sold at a subsided price of Sh50, and the nets are given free to pregnant mothers and children who are under five years,” says Mr Makau.
Other measures being taken include prompt treatment with effective anti-malarial medicines and preventive anti-malarial treatment for pregnant women.
The district medical officer of health, Dr Eric Abunga, says important strides have been made to fight malaria in the area.
“We are happy to note that we have been able to achieve reduced morbidity and even mortality due to malaria in the district over the past three years due to combined efforts in malaria prevention and control,” says Dr Abunga.
Previously, Dr Abunga added, more than 30 people were dying in the region monthly and praised stakeholders for their effort in fighting the killer disease.

Combination therapy
The last recorded epidemic occurred from January through April 1998, Dr Abunga said.
A new malaria policy known as Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT), has been put in place. The policy was launched by President Kibaki.
Recently, the World Health Organisation praised Kenya for its efforts to combat malaria, calling its mosquito net handouts a model for African governments.
Kenya and the World Health Organisation began distributing 3.4 million free insecticide-treated mosquito nets in September 2006.
“This collaboration between the Government of Kenya, WHO and donors serves as a model that should be replicated throughout Africa,” Dr Arata Kochi, director of the World Health Organisation‟s Global Malaria Programme, said.
In a report released in conjunction with WHO, the Government said it had “dramatically reduced” child deaths from malaria by giving free nets to poor rural communities. WHO estimates that in Kenya‟s high-risk areas, children sleeping under mosquito nets are 44 per cent less likely to die from malaria than those sleeping in the open.
“This is an affirmation that our investment in scaling up access to malaria control interventions can have an impact on this devastating disease,” former Health minister Charity Ngilu told journalists.
Mrs Ngilu launched a Sh500 million campaign to control malaria in 16 high-risk districts during the Africa Malaria day in Gucha District on April, 25.
The two-month initiative involved the use of synthetic chemicals, which are pyrethrin-based, for indoor spraying. The campaign targeted the highland malaria „hot-spot‟ districts in West Pokot, Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu, Kericho, Nandi, Buret, Kisii, Nyamira, Gucha, Trans Mara and Lugari, and covered 680,000 households in 60 days.

Covered eight divisions
During that period, a total of 85,000 households were sprayed and according to Mr Makau, the exercise which covered eight divisions in the area was 225 per cent successful.
“We targeted malaria prone areas, which we had mapped out and we shall do the same next year,” Mr Makau said.
Indoor residual spraying, Mr Makau notes, is an effective way of vector control being advocated for Africa.
It destroys the mosquitoes that are in the house or room and may find their way into the net or bite the occupants.
The indoor spraying lasts for six months and the community is advised to spray their houses every six months. Chemical used for such spraying, he says, are not DDT but biodegradable chemicals that are safe for humans and the environment.

New strategies
Mr Makau said the Government and its development partners are advocating the effective treatment of malaria by educating the communities on new strategies of fighting it.
These strategies include effective treatment of malaria within the first 24 hours after the onset of fever, management and control of mosquitoes, use of long-lasting treated mosquito nets and IRS.
The Africa Malaria Day has been set aside by African governments committed to rolling back the scourge and meeting the UN malaria-related Millennium Development Goals.
It is estimated that in Kenya, 39,000 children die of malaria every year.
Malaria is Kenya‟s biggest childhood killer, with an estimated 34,000 children under five dying each year.

African index medicus now on google scholar

2007-10-17T02:54:00.000-07:00

The phrase 'the lost science of the third world' is increasingly becoming a broken record.This is not a bad thing....indeed, it is milestone covered as far as the availability of literature from the third world is concerned.

The African index medicus is now available on google scholar:

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=site%3Aindexmedicus.afro.who.int

My biggest problem with this resource is that it is not possible to search for individual pieces of literature.May be the WHO Afro should look into this.

2007-08-30T05:57:00.001-07:00

2007-02-26T20:50:00.001-08:00

Welcome all to the health information in Kenya Blog

2007-02-26T20:37:00.000-08:00

Access to health information is the single-most sustainable tool to the achievement of equitable health in the developing world.This blog is aimed at providing a forum at which we can all share our ideas as we work towards Health Information for All 2015
http://www.dgroups.org/groups/HIFA2015

It is my sincere hope that we will find this forum useful.