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Articles by Catherine Maina
An international multilocation trial reveals genotype-by-environment interactions in Arabica coffee across climate gradients
Abstract Climate change makes the future of Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica L.) uncertain, a crop supporting Coffee is produced on approximately 12.5 million farms worldwide, predominantly family-run smallholdings. Identifying varieties that combine high productivity with disease resistance across diverse environments is critical for climate adaptation, yet global empirical evidence remains limited.
Adolescents at a crossroads in health rights in Africa
In the bustling cities and remote villages of Africa, millions of adolescent girls stand at a critical juncture. Their potential to drive the continent’s future is undeniable, but entrenched challenges—early pregnancies, new HIV infections, teen marriage and gender-based violence—are holding them back. As the fastest-growing demographic, with 11.6 million adolescents in Kenya alone, these young girls represent a massive opportunity.
Pursuit of equitable kidney health is a collective task
The World Kidney Day joint steering committee declared "Kidney health for all-advancing equitable access to care and optimal medication practice" as the theme for World Kidney Day 2024 celebrations, to be held today. This theme could not have been more relevant and timelier in Kenya, where the burden of kidney disease is largely underestimated.
Bring the men back to nursing
The nursing profession has been a vital part of healthcare for centuries and, while it has been historically dominated by women, it is important to recognise the valuable contributions of male nurses. In fact, during the American Civil War, the majority of nurses at that time were men. When these men took up nursing in the war, the ensuing shortage in hospitals necessitated female nurses to train and become nurses.
Nurses should upgrade skills, aspire to grow
The 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education results have offered a chance for thousands of students to think about what they intend to study in universities and colleges. In advanced economies like the United Kingdom and the United States, students have the luxury to choose career paths in line with their passion. It is upon this premise that we were told, and undoubtedly 2023 KCSE students, that we can be anything we wish to be.
Nursing cannot tolerate arrogance
The nursing profession demands humility and respect towards others. In a recent interview with former American Football star Shanon Sharpe, Katt Williams, a renowned stand-up comedian, stated, “To be confident and not delusional is a real skill”. This statement appears to be lacking in Vanesa Ogema, who displayed a combination of arrogance and self-importance when she harassed nurses at a hospital in Budalangi.
We failed Travis Maina, and he’ll surely haunt us
My phone is a constant stream of pinging notifications. A marathon of news chasing my attention. It was so on Monday the 10th. Netizens were tripping over themselves to post different versions of angry tweets regarding the death of Travis Maina, a child who succumbed to a head injury while awaiting treatment at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).
Boredom good for students
School holidays are always rife with expectations from parents and learners alike. I should know because two of my younger siblings always trip over themselves trying to fill me in with their time in school during holidays. A school break is vital to not only refresh the young brains but also help them apply what they learnt in school. An opportunity to create and recreate. Creativity stems from boredom. If necessity is the mother of invention, then boredom is her father.
Let’s pull together and fight this rare, treatable disease
Imagine waking up feeling more tired than you were when you went to sleep. Think about being too tired to lift a finger or even swat that irritating mosquito next to your ear. Imagine watching your energy level ebb away from your soul layer by layer and being too exhausted to stop it. Think about waking up to the bleak hope of an unending exhaustion, the curling wreaths of fading agility. It is brain numbing, slow and uncomfortable. Muscles flex and extend in response to nervous stimulation.
To beat obesity, try eating healthy, exercising and watch your weight
Statistics tell a story in numbers that words may not. Yet data without a story is nothing but algebraic spaghetti. Kenya has been placed at a 7.5/10 obesity risk in adults and 4/11 in children by the Global Obesity Observatory. Besides being a lifestyle disease, obesity predisposes people to a plethora of ailments—from cardiovascular diseases to chronic kidney disease, cancers, diabetes and a low immune response. Treating these consumes more than a half of any nation’s budget.
Watch out for promises that are ‘unhealthy’
Kenyans are among the most educated people in Africa. Our education system tends to wrestle with the crème de la crème of the region. The people of this sun-kissed country with lush rolling greens south of the Sahara pride themselves in being well educated. It’s with respect to that degree of education that we must demonstrate some ability to write and interpret manifestos and campaign promises. If the current political temperature is to be relied upon, we have two main presidential aspirants.
Pssst, you can be anything you want to be
Thursday, September 02, 2021 Having a secure foundation in one’s career gives the leeway to diversify. Photo credit: Pool By Catherine Maina Nephrology nurse What you need to know: Students must be encouraged to pursue career paths that will act as foundations for their dreams. While young, it is the time to make several decisions, regret a few and live with the rest. Growing up, we were encouraged to follow our dreams.
Kenya-UK deal to boost war on cancer, training of nurses
Though scanty in details, the inter-governmental arrangement that creates a special route for Kenyan nurses to temporarily work in the United Kingdom is several steps in the right direction. For decades, Kenyan nurses have complained how the powers that be belittle them and fail to recognise their input in healthcare. Failure to grab this opportunity would be tantamount to nurses shooting themselves in both feet. Kenya is seeing an unprecedented rise in the prevalence of cancer.
To end neonatal deaths, let’s fight intrusive bacteria
Monday, July 19, 2021 Due to the underdeveloped immune system, the premature baby has a higher risk of death than one born at term. Photo credit: Pool By Catherine Maina Nephrology nurse What you need to know: In 2019, Sub-Saharan African region had the highest neonatal mortality rate, at 27.5 deaths per every 1,000 live births. Ministry of Health data show the country loses 86 newborns daily — four deaths per hour. July is Group B Streptococcus awareness month.
Good nutrition is best cure for lifestyle diseases
Tuesday, July 13, 2021 We must question the nutritional value of what is on the dinner table. Photo credit: Pool By Catherine Maina Nephrology nurse What you need to know: Science has proven that human interaction with food is sacrosanct to life sustenance. Food prevents disease but, conversely, causes disease. We are constantly grappling with undernutrition and overnutrition.
This is how we can increase the uptake of coronavirus vaccine
Friday, April 02, 2021 A government officer gets Covid-19 vaccination in Nakuru. The Ministry of Health has added people aged 58 and above in Phase 1 of the ongoing Covid-19 priority vaccination groups. Photo credit: Cheboite Kigen | Nation Media Group By Catherine Maina Nephrology nurse What you need to know: Most Kenyans are willing to get vaccinated, if only to stop the curfews and avert the looming economic noose.
This is how to ‘live well’ with kidney disease
Unlike previous events, which focused on treatment and prevention of kidney disease, the theme of this year’s World Kidney Day that is being marked today is “Living well with kidney disease”. Coming from the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), this trope astutely accepts the reality of kidney disease in the world. Sustainable Development Goal No. 3 seeks healthy lives and wellbeing for all.
Nurses ought to re-brand the profession now
That ‘nurses are the backbone of healthcare’ is a statement that has been repeated many times, as if it comes straight from the Holy Mountain. It has, however, not helped much with the amplification of the role of the nurse and midwife. The World Health Organization (WHO) even extended the celebration of nurses and midwives from 2020 to 2021. Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant claps and half-hearted ululations for healthcare workers, the world has quickly moved on.
Enhance awareness of vaccine
Wednesday, February 24, 2021 A health worker fills a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Distributing vaccines only to have them expire in the cold chain will be counterintuitive. Photo credit: Christof Stache | AFP By Catherine Maina Nephrology nurse Our neighbours south of the border are steadily reporting a surge in “acute pneumonia”. To the trained and untrained eye, it is an open secret that the chickens of Covid-19 denial have come home to roost.
OPINION: Nurses, doctors and everyone else employed under UHC must be paid
By Catherine Maina If you have followed my writing long enough, you know I call out injustice without mincing my words. You also know I accord compliments where they are due without fear or favor. I hold no brief for anybody and for that reason it is hard for you to buy me into sycophancy.Allow me to break something down for you. When they devolved the services of the central government under the 2010 constitution, they devolved health services too.
MAINA: On healthcare, let us not be limited
By CATHERINE MAINA More by this Author Wangari Maathai is fondly associated with the hummingbird analogy. You surely must know the bird. That minute-flying creature that kept fluttering its tiny weeny wings and blowing water into a burning forest hoping to put it out? Yes, that one. Kenya is on the precipice of change and Eliud Kipchoge has done us a great deal of good by depicting how limitless human achievement can be.
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