The Hepatitis B Screening of Antenatal Mothers (HEPSAM) Project

This bold idea aims to integrate a locally produced HBsAg diagnostic test kit for screening of antenatal clinic (ANC) mothers in Kenya. Patients visiting public and faith-based health facilities form the majority and most vulnerable, yet they do not have their HBV status checked during ANC profiling. These weak diagnostic systems in our country creates a gap between patients and treatment. There exists a HBV vaccine but is not affordable to the majority of the population, and although school going children are vaccinated, some were exposed during birth.There exists a domesticated kit, HEPCELL that is stable for use in resource poor settings in urban and rural (remote) settings. It has the screening and confrimatory capabilities. One kit can test a minimum of 30 patients. This makes it affordable and available for routine testing of ANC mothers all over the country. The project will be piloted in Nairobi (populace), Mombasa (Urban), Busia (rural) and Turkana (highest burden). This will decentralize testing and enable health facilities to make proper medical decisions on need basis. Development of an online platform, therefore it will be necessary to pool the data collected from the health facilities and allow open and frequent communication among stakeholders. Open access and general information will be available to the ANC mothers as well. This will be possible due to the availability of mobile phones and internet connection throughout the country.