The three had recently studied the prevalence of birth defects in Kiambu County for a five-year period from 2014 to 2018.
Their report appears this month (December) in the Pan African Medical Journal and tells of an unfolding “silent epidemic.”
The team had analysed records of all children born with physical abnormalities in 13 sub-country hospitals in Kiambu.
The sampled sub-county hospitals included Kihara, Karuri, Wangige, Nyathuna, Lari-Rukuma, Ruiru, Tigoni, Lussigetti, Kigumo and Igegania plus the three county referral hospitals of Kiambu, Thika and Gatundu.
Overall, the study found a year-to-year increase of children being born with physical abnormalities in the county.
“There was a steady annual increase in the prevalence estimates of various physical defects in children during the study period,” wrote the authors.
The medicine bug in the Magohas’ blood
Dr Barbara O Essien Magoha marries Prof George Magoha in 1982. Photo: Courtesy.
The Kenyan father, Nigerian mother and their son are all doctors, with their lives somewhat intertwined to the University of Nairobi (UoN). Growing in Jerusalem (Salem) in Nairobi’s Eastlands, George Magoha chose his career path in urology after witnessing how men had problems passing urine as a child. Prof Magoha went on to research on male erectile dysfunction, prostrate, testicular and penile cancers. He was awarded International Order of Merit and Gold Medal for Research in Cancer of Penis in Africans in 2001. Indeed, his research on erectile dysfunction was influential in the invention of Viagra!
UoN Gets Covid-19 Vaccine Breakthrough
11 December 2020 - 11:00 am
Prof. Stephen Kiama Gitahi during his installation as the 8th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi on June 5, 2020.
The University of Nairobi (UoN) has made great strides in the development of a local Covid-19 vaccine.
Speaking during the university’s 64th graduation ceremony, Education CAS Zack Kinuthia announced that he had been reliably informed that the institution’s researchers were preparing to break the news to the country.
“I commend the researchers from the University of Nairobi for being in the frontline of sharing their knowledge and expertise as we continue to seek answers on containing the Coronavirus and managing the social-economic impact.