Last week saw the National Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Lung Disease Program (NLTD-P) and the Kenya Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (KAPTLD) come together to host the 5th Kenya International Scientific Lung Health Conference in Kenya.
At the conference, KAPTLD was relaunched under its new guise of Respiratory Society of Kenya (ReSoK) which brings together the country’s leading respiratory clinicians.
Held at The Nairobi Hospital Convention Centre between June 25-28th, the theme of the conference was Business Unusual: Multi-Sectoral Approach to Lung Health. IMPALA PhD student Brenda Mungai gave a talk on Distribution of lung abnormalities on chest X-ray images taken during the Kenya Prevalence survey 2016: A pilot study
Brenda was also rapporteur for the plenary session discussing learnings and next-steps after the UN High-Level Meeting on TB which took place in New York in September last year.
Healthy Lungs for Life
As part of the conference, IMPALA partner Lindsay Zurba delivered a 1-day spirometry workshop for 45 participants alongside local Kenyan spirometry experts, Dr. Sammy Gitonga and Dr. Salim Masoud.
The aim of the event was to provide free lung function testing for at least 100 members of the local community over 2 days. With posters banners and leaflets in and around the hospital to tell people about the event, there was no shortage of people coming to know about how their lungs were functioning. 114 hospital staff and conference delegates were tested and counselled on their results.
The event was extremely well received and enjoyed by all. Very special thanks to the Pan African Thoracic Society and the European Lung Foundation for their sponsorship of the event and to Prof Chakaya and his wonderful teams from KAPTLD and the KISLHC for working with us to promote lung health and awareness and their efforts to make this the exciting and well-run event that it was.
The training was supported by the NIHR-funded Global Health Research Unit on Lung Health and TB in Africa (IMPALA, grant 16/136/35)