50,000 Kenyan children are about to get checked for the diseases nobody screens for

In Vihiga and Isiolo counties, a three-year UNICEF programme launched this month will screen 50,000 children and teenagers — 30,000 in Vihiga, 20,000 in Isiolo — for four chronic illnesses that often go undetected until they turn dangerous: type 1 diabetes, sickle cell disease, asthma, and heart conditions. The $600,000 effort goes beyond the checkups: teachers, parents, and community workers get training, families get support groups and plain-language care guides, and a clinical officer at Vihiga Teaching and Referral Hospital says the diabetes screening alone could spare families the crushing cost of lifelong insulin discovered too late. If it works, the model could roll out across Kenya.