NPR Profiles Two Kenyan Brothers' Efforts To Provide Health Services In Home Village

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Tuberculosis;  Tropical Diseases;  Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 27 Feb 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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NPR's "News and Notes" on Tuesday profiled two brothers, originally from a village in western Kenya, who returned to the village after attending medical school at Dartmouth College to build and operate a local health clinic to provide services such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria treatment. Milton Ochieng said that after seeing "the difficulties in people accessing health care" in their village while growing up and having both parents die from AIDS-related causes, he returned with his brother to open a clinic that provides "public health interventions," including vaccinations and child immunizations. He reported that the clinic has seen more than 30,000 patients, 85% of whom have been treated at no cost. He said that the government plans to partner with the clinic to bolster community outreach efforts, adding, "We are hoping to break ground on the maternity wing and an HIV wing so that we can provide more comprehensive care to the community."

According to Fred Ochieng, curbing the spread of HIV in Kenya will require "interventions on different levels." He added that the clinic has used soccer, which has a large following in the country, to provide HIV/AIDS education through tournaments to "bring people together to talk about ways to raise HIV awareness" and "answer the questions that the young people do have about HIV." Fred Ochieng said that he is excited about the "potential" of President Obama's plans to support HIV/AIDS efforts in Africa. He added that there has been a "feminization of HIV/AIDS" and that support is needed for agriculture, sanitation and health care delivery (Cox, "News and Notes", NPR, 2/24).

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