Four Hoosiers have arrived safely home from Eldoret, Kenya, where they offered medical expertise to local hemophilia healthcare providers and patients.
Dr. Anne Greist, Jeanne Sagar, Carrie Starnes and Stacie Akins with the Indiana Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center (IHTC) in Indianapolis spent the past two weeks in Kenya. The trip centered around establishing a new hemophilia outreach site in Kisii, Kenya, as well as training local medical staff on the use of new ultrasound equipment for joint assessments which allows doctors to identify if a patient is bleeding internally and requires life-saving, yet costly medication.
It is estimated that more than 4,000 people in Kenya have been born with hemophilia, yet due to the lack of diagnosis and appropriate care, only 2,500 are likely to still be alive. Sickle cell disease, an inherited red blood cell disorder also affects tens of thousands of Kenyans.
Because of this, in 2010, IHTC joined a partnership between the Indiana University School of Medicine and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret, Kenya to support individuals with bleeding disorders. MTRH is the second largest referral hospital in Kenya, and one of only a few medical schools in the country. Teams from IHTC have traveled twice a year over the past nine years to MTRH working to improve the lives of Kenyas who have complex bleeding and blood disorders.
“When we started this program 10 years ago, Kenyan healthcare providers would say they had no patients with hemophilia, when in reality they had hundreds,” shared Dr. Greist, who has made the IHTC trip to Kenya every year since its inception. “We’re at a point where we’ve made significant progress towards closing the gap and the type of treatment for this disease available in Kenya.”
MTRH has partnered with Indiana University for more than 20 years to create the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) program. The IHTC joined AMPATH to assist Kenyan physicians establish western Kenya’s first comprehensive HTC, now known as KH-CARE. Since that time, the IHTC has helped to establish a coagulation lab, provide access to drug therapies, conduct home visits to patients, and organize healthcare provider and patient education conferences about hemophilia management. In addition, over 400 individuals have been registered as part of the hemophilia registry to aid in effective follow-up and management.
Dr. Greist and a team from IHTC will return to Kenya in October this year.
“We hope to continue to enhance the treatment options available in Kenya and to find and diagnose as many patients as we can,” said Dr. Greist. “We’ve also had the pleasure of hosting a number of Kenyan medical professionals at IHTC and we certainly look forward to hosting more in the future.”