Pneumonia is responsible for the deaths of more children under five than any other disease.
Health project with focus on Pneumonia
The overall goal of our project is to contribute to the reduction of morbidity and mortality of children under five by improving pneumonia case management in urban slums of Nairobi in Kenya. The project aims to develop an evidence-based model, which can be replicated in any other country.
Pneumonia is the leading cause of child mortality globally, killing more children than malaria and diarrhea combined. In 2016, an estimated 880’000 children died from pneumonia, even though treatment is well known and relatively inexpensive.
The first phase of the project focuses on collecting data from the health care providers and the urban slums population to improve access to the new pneumonia case management guidelines for patients aged 2-59 months in the private and public health facilities in Nairobi County. This research seeks to understand the influence and barriers to accessing pneumonia treatment by the urban slum’s population.
The second and third phase will focus on pilot projects to test the model developed in the first phase and possibilities for a sustainable scale-up. There it is also in strong collaboration with the Ministry of Health and other local partners to guarantee long-term sustainability of the project.
50% of the childhood pneumonia deaths occur in the Sub-Saharan Africa.
A doctor treats Khadija (5 month)
Khadija was admitted to the hospital with severe pneumonia, severe acute malnutrition and dehydration. In hospital she responded well to the treatment which helped her recover.
Slums and informal settlements in Nairobi
Despite being an established hub for business and culture, with one of the largest stock markets in Africa, Nairobi has some of the densest, unsanitary and insecure slums. Children and families in slums have limited access to health care.
There are over 100 slums and informal settlements within Nairobi and access to health care is poor. For example, in Kibera, the largest of Nairobi’s slums, more than 250’000 people are served only by 10 public sector health providers. That’s why in this project we focus specifically on populations in slums.
The primary beneficiaries of the first phase will be approximately 3000 children aged 2-59 month, 295 health care workers, 50 community health volunteers and health managers and policy makers within the country.
The Ministry of Health of Kenya is one of the primary partners for the implementation of the project. This gives a great opportunity for possibilities to adapt the research project to other geographical regions in order to improve access to Integrated Community Case Management in other urban slums.
Nurse Jedidah, treats one-month old Ekeno for symptoms of Pneumonia.
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