US medical experts train doctors in Laikipia in a bid to boost health sector

Medics at Nanyuki Teaching and Referral Hospital were this week taken through routine continuous medical education by professors from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut USA.

Dr Robert Crusio, a specialist in internal medicine and intensivist works in critical care at St Vincent’s Medical Centre of the University of Quinnipiac, was among the specialists from US who have pitched camp in Laikipia.

The US team is led by Dr David Hill who is a professor at the Frank H. Netter M.D. School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University. The team made a briefing on sepsis, a serious medical condition that is associated with body overreaction to (mostly) bacterial infections.

30 million cases

The presentation was meant to update the medical personnel at the county hospital on the recommended standard practice of returning the patient from a severe stage of septic shock to a safer state, a time-critical action that could save a patient’s live.

Approximately 30 million cases of sepsis are recorded per year worldwide, with five million lives lost to the disease per year. The condition, though rare, is fatal and almost irreversible if timely actions are not taken.

The weekly exercise is an internal initiative meant to keep the medical personnel at the facility abreast with the dynamics in the field medicine. This week will have an additional session on Friday, where the visiting team will make presentations on the antibiotic-resistant TB, condition medics at NTRH say is a growing concern.

The visiting medics also presented medical equipment and books to the health staff. Governor Ndiritu Muriithi, assured the medical fraternity of full support on research efforts that will better the health delivery to the people.