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Developing and introducing evidence based clinical practice guidelines for serious illness in Kenya

¹ Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi, Republic of Kenya
² Centre for Geographic Medicine Research – Coast, KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme, PO Box 230, Kilifi and PO Box 43640, Nairobi, Republic of Kenya
³ Division of Child Health, Ministry of Health, Republic of Kenya
⁴ Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Correspondence to:
Dr Grace Irimu, Centre for Geographic Medicine Research – Coast, KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme, PO Box 230, Kilifi and PO Box 43640, Nairobi, Republic of Kenya; girimu@nairobi.kemri-wellcome.org

Accepted for publication 28 May 2008

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Kenya, in common with many developing countries, has committed itself to Millennium Development Goal (MDG)-4, which calls for a two-third reduction in 1990 mortality levels in under 5-year-old children by 2015.¹ Improving the management of common severe childhood illnesses is one of many strategies likely to be needed to achieve this goal since hospital mortality rates as high as 15% are reported.^{2 3} Two further points also suggest the potential value of improved basic care to improve outcomes. First, the majority of deaths are attributable to a handful of illnesses and second, assessments demonstrate that the quality of care provided to children in low-income countries is often poor and has considerable scope for improvement.^{3 4}

Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are intended to assist the health provider in evidence-based decision making and promote the provision of optimal care. Previous studies have shown that adherence to such evidence-based guidelines is associated with improved health . . . [Full text of this article]