AIDS and Malaria Projects in Kisumu

Jul 30th, 2009 11:51 AM UTC
By Bryant Shannon

Our ONE Campus Challenge students are on the ground in Kenya. Bryant Shannon reports back:

On Tuesday, we had an early flight out of Nairobi. We were headed to Kisumu, a community near Lake Victoria where we were able to visit a clinic funded by PEPFAR. They serve over 1,200 patients that have HIV. Half of these patients were tested because they were sick, and the other half were merely curious about their status. The clinic provides counseling services in preventative health, nutrition, and hygiene.

When an HIV patient’s CD4 count (a measure of the number for helper T cells per cubic millimeter of blood) dips below 250, they are given antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. USAID helps fund these ARVs. Patients are only required to pay 200 Ksh (less than US$3) for their laboratory tests and their medications. These drugs, when taken as directed, can lengthen and improve a patient’s quality of life.

Kisumu’s HIV prevalence is more than twice Kenya’s national average. This is attributed to the fishing culture of the community and the number of people commuting through the area. Fish are in such high demand that often women pay high prices, and are sometimes forced to have sex as payment for the fish.

The clinic has significantly decreased mother-to-child transmission of the virus to below 10%, with the additional funding they have received for the medications. We met with Brightone Odundo, a nurse in the clinic who told us about the complications that arise from combating HIV in addition to opportunistic diseases that take advantage of a compromised immune system, such as tuberculosis (TB). Over 80% of this clinic’s TB patients are also HIV-positive.

Another portion of our busy day that I found particularly interesting was their outreach program to decrease the prevalence of malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes. USAID provides insecticide for the clinic’s outreach workers to spray peoples’ homes.

One of the homes we visited was that of Millicent Adhiambo Obuya. She was widowed 10 years ago and has four children. Her children would frequently get malaria in the past, until she was educated about spraying and using anti-malaria nets from the clinic’s community outreach workers.

Once every year, members of the clinic spray the homes of people in their community. Millicent was warned to remain outside of the home for 2-4 hours and then to sweep and dispose of the contents away from the home. This minimizes the adverse effects of spraying in and around the home. She was also educated on the importance of bed nets in preventing malaria. The clinic sells these nets at a greatly subsidized cost of 50 Ksh (less than US$1). These nets normally would cost US$8-10. Since Millicent’s family began sleeping under bed nets and getting their home sprayed, they have had no incidents of malaria. It was a great success story to hear about funds efficiently allocated and making a difference in the fight against malaria.

Although the clinic has made significant headway with its progressive outreach program, things are far from perfect. Many of the community members use the bed nets to fish instead of to prevent malaria. They would rather utilize them for the short term of catching food then sleeping under them to prevent malaria. Others do not access the clinic enough to get educated about the importance of insecticide and bed nets. In addition, much of Kenya does not have the funding that Kisumu receives for many of these great educational outreach programs.

Today showed me there is a lot of hope in the fight against these infectious diseases, yet still much to do. Educational outreach is a very successful way to get people to understand how to prevent these diseases, which is necessary to get their cooperation for these preventative measures.

-Bryant Shannon

TAGS: 2009 OCC Africa Trip, HIV/AIDS