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Homa Bay is set to benefit from Shikuri Project’s life-saving IV antibiotics, hydration, and pain medicine to children and adults in sickle cell pain crisis.

Governor Gladys Wanga who received the donation from Dr. Cecily Gail commended the Shikuri Project for its commitment to ease the treat burden for sicklers in the region.

“We are committed to providing solutions to our sickle cell patients including their enrollment into NHIF scheme to help ease the cost of screening, treatment and care,” Governor Wanga was speaking during the event at the Homa Bay county’s teaching and referral hospital on Friday.

The county boss said that, her administration is also looking into providing medicine and equipping this facility with its own electrophoresis.

Despite serving over 3 million people from Homa Bay and the neighboring counties, the hospital has no working IV medication Hydration pump, making it unable to offer sicklers optimal therapies and treatment including IV antibiotics, hydration, so they suffer the anguish of infant mortality from sickle cell induced infections.

The Shikuri Project provided a 6 point of care, diagnostic machines (HemoTypeSCTM _ Rapid test kits for determination of the presence of hemoglobin A, S and C in whole blood) to Ndhiwa Subcounty Hospital.

Dr. Gail was speaking during the event, when she gave a personal testimony with these pumps in saving the life of her son, Che Shikuri.

“On several occasions when he had high fevers and pain crises, these pumps delivered him life-saving IV antibiotics,” She explained.

The lead pediatrician in the county Dr. Meshak Liru revealed that Ndhiwa sub county has a medically underserved and high sickle cell population.

“As a result, sickle cell patients often suffer from infant mortality due to sickle cell-induced infections,” He said.

Dr. Gail is committed to improving healthcare for sickle cell patients, and she hopes that this donation will make a difference in the lives of many people.

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a cause of death and suffering that is not properly tracked under the Kenyan health data system. As a result, this population is invisible, and deaths by SCD are often attributed to malaria, sepsis, and stroke, which are some of the complications of Sickle Cell SS.

The provision of test kits by the Shikuri Project through Dr. Gail will bring about a revolution in diagnosis, tracking, and saving lives of a ghost population.

The governor thanked the Shikuri Project for its generous donations and urged other organizations and individuals to follow their lead.

She noted that improving healthcare for sickle cell patients is a priority for the county government and that the Shikuri Project is making a significant contribution to this effort.

“These donations will represent the fruition of key elements of the Shikuri Project plan, which is being incrementally delivered in partnership with the Homa Bay health department.”