High bilirubin levels are associated with sensorineural hearing loss. Exchange transfusions are recommended when bilirubin levels reach certain thresholds. However, the relative and excess risks of hearing loss in infants with bilirubin levels at/above exchange transfusion thresholds are unknown.

In this Northern California population of term and late preterm infants, elevated bilirubin levels were not associated with an increased risk of sensorineural hearing loss unless the levels were at least 10 mg/dL above exchange transfusion thresholds. (Read the full article)

Neurodevelopmental outcomes after cardiac surgery in early life provide critical information for understanding and improving care. Studies show these children are at risk for arterial ischemic stroke and acquired brain injury; further characterization of motor impairment is needed.

This study focuses on the presence of chronic neuromotor disabilities including cerebral palsy and motor impairments after acquired brain injury in children surviving early complex cardiac surgery, providing information on the frequency, characteristics, and predictors that may assist in prevention. (Read the full article)

Guidelines for postdischarge monitoring of hyperbilirubinemia for neonates of white descent are available from the American Academy of Pediatrics; however, such information for healthy term and late preterm Chinese neonates is lacking.

A classification model for predicting the risk of significant hyperbilirubinemia in Chinese neonates was developed that combines a transcutaneous bilirubin–based nomogram with clinical risk factors. It classified newborns into 6 risk groups, which can guide clinicians in planning appropriate follow-up strategies. (Read the full article)

There are no validated claims-based algorithms for identifying children with disabilities (CWD) to facilitate larger-scale studies of care quality for CWD.

This study develops the CWD algorithm, a claims-based algorithm for identifying diagnostic codes with a ≥75% chance of indicating CWD, and triangulates the algorithm against parent report and physician chart abstraction. (Read the full article)

Amid coronavirus-related school closures, advocates worry Education Secretary Betsy DeVos may waive requirements of special education law if Congress signs off. Schools say it's difficult to meet some requirements during the pandemic.

The approaching elections could be important steps toward reviving democracy in Chad, but only if President Idriss Déby opens political space for the opposition beforehand.

The attempt by Congo and Rwanda to end the deadly conflict in eastern Congo by a secret presidential deal and military force is failing and must be changed fundamentally by the Kinshasa government and the international community.

Le processus électoral hors délai constitutionnel qui se déroule depuis le 23 janvier en Centrafrique n'est pas seulement une nouvelle opportunité manquée pour la démocratisation du pays mais c'est aussi un risque sérieux pour la paix.

Le président sortant vient d'entamer un sixième mandat au Cameroun. Aujourd'hui, le pays est résolument tourné vers l'avenir et pense à l'après-Biya.

Renewed oil interest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) could nurture communal resentments, exacerbate deep-rooted conflict dynamics and weaken national cohesion.

The Kivus region of eastern Congo again faces escalating violence, including by a rebel force acting as a proxy of neighbouring Rwanda. To stop the repetitive cycle of rebellion and avoid large-scale killing, donors and African mediators need to move from crisis management to conflict resolution with the right set of pressures on Kigali and Kinshasa.

To stabilise the Central African Republic (CAR), the transitional government and its international partners need to prioritise, alongside security, action to fight corruption and trafficking of natural resources, as well as revive the economy.

David Figlio and Eduwonkette discuss if today's testing and accountability policies accurately depict student performance and the size of the achievement

The Education Week Research Center looks at student scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress from 2003 to 2015, a period overlapping with the No Child Left Behind Act.

The U.S. Education Department says the states need more evidence to use the popular admissions test to measure high school achievement.

Helen Janc Malone introduces this week's blog theme, "accountability and assessment systems." She writes that at the heart of the current accountability debate is a fundamental question, What is the purpose of all the collected assessment data? Are they an end game or a starting point to educational

If we continue to focus on student growth and improvement as learners, keep track of that progress, and watch its impact on standard test results, will we be able to know if what we are doing is helping students develop as learners and thinkers.

Ceftobiprole medocaril is an advanced-generation cephalosporin prodrug that has qualified infectious disease product status granted by the US-FDA and is currently being evaluated in phase 3 clinical trials in patients with acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSIs) and in patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. In this study, the activity of ceftobiprole and comparators was evaluated against more than 7,300 clinical isolates collected in the United States from 2016 through 2018 from patients with skin and skin structure infections. The major species/pathogen groups were S. aureus (53%), Enterobacterales (23%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (7%), β-hemolytic streptococci (6%), Enterococcus spp. (4%), and coagulase-negative staphylococci (2%). Ceftobiprole was highly active against S. aureus (MIC_50/90, 0.5/1 mg/L; 99.7% susceptible by EUCAST criteria; 42% methicillin-resistant S. aureus [lsqb]MRSA[rsqb]). Ceftobiprole also exhibited potent activity against other Gram-positive cocci. The overall susceptibility of Enterobacterales to ceftobiprole was 84.8% (>99.0% susceptible for isolate subsets that exhibited a non-extended-spectrum β-lactamase [lsqb]ESBL[rsqb]-phenotype). A total of 74.4% of P. aeruginosa, 100% of β-hemolytic streptococci and coagulase-negative staphylococci, and 99.6% of Enterococcus faecalis isolates were inhibited by ceftobiprole at ≤4 mg/L. As expected, ceftobiprole was largely inactive against Enterobacterales that contained ESBL genes and Enterococcus faecium. Overall, ceftobiprole was highly active against most clinical isolates from the major Gram-positive and Gram-negative skin and skin structure pathogen groups collected at U.S. medical centers participating in the SENTRY Antimicrobial Surveillance Program during 2016–2018. The broad-spectrum activity of ceftobiprole, including potent activity against MRSA, supports its further evaluation for the potential ABSSSI indication.

Background. CLSI and EUCAST susceptibility breakpoints for voriconazole and C. albicans differ by one dilution (≤0.125 and ≤0.06 mg/l, respectively) whereas the epidemiological cutoff values (ECOFF/ECV) with both methodologies are the same (0.03 mg/L). We therefore determined the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) breakpoints of voriconazole against C. albicans for both methodologies with an in vitro PK/PD model, which was validated using existing animal PK/PD data.

Methods. Four clinical wild-type and non-wild-type C. albicans isolates (voriconazole MICs 0.008-0.125 mg/l) were tested in an in vitro PK/PD model. For validation purposes, mouse PK were simulated and in vitro PD were compared with in vivo outcome. Human PK were simulated and the exposure-effect relationship fAUC_0-24/MIC was described for EUCAST and CLSI24/48h methods. PK/PD breakpoints were determined using the fAUC_0-24/MIC associated with half-maximal activity (EI₅₀) and Monte Carlo simulation analysis.

Results. The in vitro 24h-PD EI₅₀ of voriconazole against C. albicans were 2.5-5 (1.5-17) fAUC/MIC. However, the 72h-PD were higher, 133 (51-347) fAUC/MIC for EUCAST and 94 (35-252) fAUC/MIC for CLSI. The mean (95% confidence interval) probability of target attainment (PTA) was 100(95-100)%, 97(72-100)%, 83(35-99)%, and 49(8-91)% and 100(97-100)%, 99(85-100)%, 91(52-100)% and 68(17-96)% for EUCAST and CLSI MICs 0.03, 0.06, 0.125, and 0.25 mg/L, respectively. Significantly, >95% PTAs were found for EUCAST/CLSI MICs ≤0.03 mg/ll. For MICs 0.06-0.125 mg/l trough levels 1-4 mg/ll would be required.

Conclusion. A PK/PD breakpoint of C. albicans voriconazole at the ECOFF/ECV of 0.03 mg/L was determined for both EUCAST/CLSI methods, indicating the need for breakpoint harmonization for the reference methodologies.

In vitro and in vivo interactions of minocycline and azoles including itraconazole, voriconazole, and posaconazole against filamentous pathogenic fungi were investigated. A total of 56 clinical isolates were studied in vitro via broth microdilution checkerboard technique, including 20 strains of Aspergillus fumigatus, 7 strains of A. flavus, 16 strains of Exophiala dermatitidis, 10 strains of Fusarium solani and 3 strain s of F. oxysporum. The results revealed that minocycline individually did not exhibit any significant antifungal activity against all tested strains. However, favorable synergy of minocycline with itraconazole, voriconazole, or posaconazole were observed against 34 (61%), 28 (50%), and 38 (69%) isolates, respectively, including azole resistant A. fumigatus and Fusarium spp. with inherently high MICs of azoles. Synergistic combinations resulted in 4 fold to 16-fold reduction of effective MICs of minocycline and azoles. No antagonism was observed. In vivo effect of minocycline-azole combinations were evaluated by survival assay in Galleria mellonella model infected with E. dermatitidis strain BMU00034, F. solani strain FS9, A. fumigatus strain AF293, AFR1 and AFR2 . Minocycline acted synergistically with azoles and significantly increased larvae survival in all isolates (P<0.001), including azole resistant A. fumigatus and azole-inactive Fusarium spp.. In conclusion, the results suggested that minocycline combined with azoles may help to enhance the antifungal susceptibilities of azoles against pathogenic fungi and had the potential to overcome azole resistance issues.

Ceftazidime–avibactam and cefiderocol are two of the latest generation β-lactam agents that possess expanded activity against highly drug-resistant bacteria, including carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales. Here we show that structural changes in AmpC β-lactamases can confer reduced susceptibility to both agents. A multidrug-resistant Enterobacter cloacae clinical strain (Ent385) was found to be resistant to ceftazidime–avibactam and cefiderocol without prior exposure to either agent. The AmpC β-lactamase of Ent385 (AmpC^Ent385) contained an alanine–proline deletion at positions 294–295 (A294_P295del) in the R2 loop. AmpC^Ent385 conferred reduced susceptibility to ceftazidime–avibactam and cefiderocol when cloned into Escherichia coli TOP10. Purified AmpC^Ent385 showed increased hydrolysis of ceftazidime and cefiderocol compared with AmpC^Ent385Rev, in which the deletion was reverted. Comparisons of crystal structures of AmpC^Ent385 and AmpC^P99, the canonical AmpC of E. cloacae, revealed that the two-residue deletion in AmpC^Ent385 induced drastic structural changes of the H-9 and H-10 helices and the R2 loop, which accounted for the increased hydrolysis of ceftazidime and cefiderocol. The potential for a single mutation in ampC to confer reduced susceptibility to both ceftazidime–avibactam and cefiderocol requires close monitoring.

Importance Ceftazidime–avibactam and cefiderocol are newly approved β-lactam agents that possess broad spectrum activity against multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacteria. We show here that a two amino-acid deletion in the chromosomal AmpC β-lactamase, identified in a clinical strain of Enterobacter cloacae, confers reduced susceptibility to both agents. By crystallographic studies of free and drug-bound forms of enzyme, we demonstrate that this deletion in AmpC induces slanting of the H-9 helix that is directly connected with the R2 loop, and disappearance of the H-10 helix, is directly responsible for increased hydrolysis of ceftazidime and cefiderocol. These findings provide novel insights into how MDR Gram-negative bacteria may evolve their β-lactamases to survive selective pressure from these newly developed β-lactam agents.

Treatment of Mycobacterium avium complex pulmonary disease (MAC-PD) is challenging partly due to high efflux pump expression. Thioridazine might block these efflux pumps. We explore thioridazine's efficacy against M. avium using minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs), time-kill combination assays, ex vivo macrophage infection assays and efflux assays. Thioridazine is bactericidal against M. avium, inhibits intracellular growth at 2x MIC and blocks ethidium bromide efflux. However, its toxicity and low plasma concentrations, make it unlikely to add efficacy to MAC-PD therapy.

Tedizolid has demonstrated its efficacy and safety in clinical trials, however, data concerning its tolerability in long-term treatments is scarce. The aim of the study was to assess the indications and to describe the long-term safety profile of tedizolid.

A multicentric, retrospective study of patients who received tedizolid for more than 6-days was conducted. Adverse events (AEs) were identified from patients' medical records and laboratory data. The World Health Organization causality categories were used to discern AEs probably associated with tedizolid.

Eighty-one patients, treated with tedizolid 200mg once-daily for a median (IQR) duration of 28 (14-59) days, were included, 36 (44.4%) had previously received linezolid. Most common reasons for selecting tedizolid were to avoid linezolid potential toxicities or interactions (53.1%) or due to previous linezolid-related toxicities (27.2%). Most common indications were off-label, including prosthetic joint infections, osteomyelitis and respiratory infections (77.8%). Overall, 9/81 patients (11.1%) experienced a probably associated AE. Two patients (2.5%) developed gastrointestinal disorders, 1 (1.2%) anemia and 6 thrombocytopenia (7.4%) after a median (IQR) duration of treatment of 26.5 (17-58.5) days. Four (5%) patients discontinued tedizolid due to AEs. Among 23 patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) the rate of mielotoxicity was 17.4% and only 8.7% had to stop tedizolid and 20 out of 22 with previous linezolid-associated toxicity had no AE.

Long-term tedizolid treatments had good tolerance with rates of gastrointestinal AE and hematological toxicity lower than those reported with linezolid, particularly in patients with CRF and in those with a previous history of linezolid-associated toxicity.

Meropenem/vaborbactam resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae is associated with loss of function mutations in the OmpK35 and OmpK36 porins. Here we identify two previously unknown loss of function mutations that confer cefuroxime resistance in K. pneumoniae. The proteins lost were NlpD and KvrA; the latter is a transcriptional repressor controlling capsule production. We demonstrate that KvrA loss reduces OmpK35 and OmpK36 porin production, which confers reduced susceptibility to meropenem/vaborbactam in a KPC-3 producing K. pneumoniae isolate.

Objectives: Empiric antibiotic prescribing can be supported by guidelines and/or local antibiograms, but these have limitations. We sought to use data from a comprehensive electronic health record to use statistical learning to develop predictive models for individual antibiotics that incorporate patient-, and hospital-specific factors. This paper reports on the development and validation of these models on a large retrospective cohort.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study including hospitalized patients with positive urine cultures in the first 48 hours of hospitalization at a 1500 bed, tertiary care hospital over a 4.5 year period. All first urine cultures with susceptibilities were included. Statistical learning techniques, including penalized logistic regression, were used to create predictive models for cefazolin, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin, cefepime, and piperacillin-tazobactam. These were validated on a held-out cohort.

Results: The final dataset used for analysis included 6,366 patients. Final model covariates included demographics, comorbidity score, recent antibiotic use, recent antimicrobial resistance, and antibiotic allergies. Models had acceptable to good discrimination in the training dataset and acceptable performance in the validation dataset, with a point estimate for area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) that ranged from 0.65 for ceftriaxone to 0.69 for cefazolin. All models had excellent calibration.

Conclusion: In this study we used electronic health record data to create predictive models to estimate antibiotic susceptibilities for UTIs in hospitalized patients. Our models had acceptable performance in a held-out validation cohort.

Aspergillus niger, the third species responsible for invasive aspergillosis has been considered as a homogeneous species until DNA-based identification uncovered many cryptic species. These species have been recently reclassified into the Aspergillus section Nigri. However little is yet known among the section Nigri about the species distribution and the antifungal susceptibility pattern of each cryptic species. A total of 112 clinical isolates collected from 5 teaching hospitals in France and phenotypically identified as A. niger were analyzed. Identification to the species level was carried out by nucleotide sequence analysis. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs) of itraconazole, voriconazole, posaconazole, isavuconazole and amphotericin B were determined by both the EUCAST and gradient concentration strips methods. Aspergillus tubingensis (n=51, 45.5%) and A. welwitschiae (n=50, 44.6%) were the most common species while A. niger accounted for only 6.3% (n=7). The MICs of azoles drugs were higher for A. tubingensis than for A. welwitschiae. The MIC of amphotericin B was 2 mg/L or less for all isolates. Importantly, MICs determined by EUCAST showed no correlation with those determined by gradient concentration strips methods, these latter being lower than the former (Spearman's rank correlation tests ranging - depending on the antifungal agent - from 0.01 to 0.25; p>0.4). In conclusion, A. niger should be considered as a minority species in the section Nigri. The differences in MICs between species for different azoles underline the importance of accurate identification. Significant divergences in the determination of MIC between EUCAST and gradient concentration strips methods require further investigation.

Introduction: This study was performed to evaluate the impacts of vanA-positivity of Enterococcus faecium (EFM) exhibiting diverse susceptibility phenotypes to glycopeptides on clinical outcomes in patients with a bloodstream infection (BSI) through a prospective, multicenter, observational study.

Methods: A total of 509 patients with an EFM BSI from eight sentinel hospitals in South Korea during a two-year period were enrolled in this study. Risk factors of the hosts and causative EFM isolates were assessed to determine associations with the 30-day mortality of EFM BSI patients via multivariable logistic regression analyses.

Results: The vanA gene was detected in 35.2% (179/509) of EFM isolates; 131 EFM isolates exhibited typical VanA phenotypes (group vanA-VanA), while the remaining 48 EFM isolates exhibited atypical phenotypes (group vanA-Atypical), including VanD (n = 43) and vancomycin-variable phenotypes (n = 5). A multivariable logistic regression indicated that vanA-positivity of causative pathogens was independently associated with the increased 30-day mortality rate in the patients with an EFM BSI; however, there was no significant difference in the survival rates between the patients of the vanA-VanA and vanA-Atypical groups (log-rank test, P = 0.904).

Conclusions: A high 30-day mortality rate was observed in patients with vanA-positive EFM BSIs, and vanA-positivity of causative EFM was an independent risk factor for early mortality irrespective of the susceptibility phenotypes to glycopeptides; thus, intensified antimicrobial stewardship is needed to improve clinical outcome of patients with vanA-positive EFM BSI.

As resistance to artemisinins (current frontline drugs in malaria treatment) emerges in south East Asia, there is an urgent need to identify the genetic determinants and understand the molecular mechanisms underpinning such resistance. Such insights could lead to prospective interventions to contain resistance and prevent the eventual spread to other malaria endemic regions. Artemisinin reduced susceptibility in South East Asia (SEA) has been primarily linked to mutations in P. falciparum Kelch-13, which is currently widely recognised as a molecular marker of artemisinin resistance. However, 2 mutations in a ubiquitin hydrolase, UBP-1, have been previously associated with artemisinin reduced susceptibility in a rodent model of malaria and some cases of UBP-1 mutation variants associating with artemisinin treatment failure have been reported in Africa and SEA. In this study, we have employed CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing and pre-emptive drug pressures to test these artemisinin susceptibility associated mutations in UBP-1 in P. berghei sensitive lines in vivo. Using these approaches, we have shown that the V2721F UBP-1 mutation results in reduced artemisinin susceptibility, while the V2752F mutation results in resistance to chloroquine and moderately impacts tolerance to artemisinins. Genetic reversal of the V2752F mutation restored chloroquine sensitivity in these mutant lines while simultaneous introduction of both mutations could not be achieved and appears to be lethal. Interestingly, these mutations carry a detrimental growth defect, which would possibly explain their lack of expansion in natural infection settings. Our work has provided independent experimental evidence on the role of UBP-1 in modulating parasite responses to artemisinin and chloroquine under in vivo conditions.

Manogepix (APX001A) is the active moiety of the novel drug candidate fosmanogepix (APX001). We previously reported the broad-spectrum activity of manogepix but also observed a correlation between increased manogepix and fluconazole MICs. Here we extended this study and included isolates with acquired fluconazole resistance.

Isolates (n=835) were identified using CHROMagar, MALDI-TOF and, when needed, ITS-sequencing. EUCAST E.Def 7.3.1 susceptibility testing included manogepix, amphotericin B, anidulafungin, micafungin, fluconazole and voriconazole. Manogepix wildtype-upper-limit (WT-UL) values were established following EUCAST-principles for ECOFF setting allowing wildtype/non-wildtype classification. Drug-specific MIC correlations were investigated using Pearson's correlation.

Manogepix modal MICs were low (range 0.004-0.06 mg/L against 16/20 included species). Exceptions were C. krusei and C. inconspicua, and to a lesser extent C. kefyr and Pichia kluyveri. The activity was independent of Fks echinocandin hot-spot alterations (n=17). Adopting the WT-UL established for C. albicans, C. dubliniensis, C. glabrata, C. parapsilosis and C. tropicalis, 14/724 (1.9%) isolates were non-wildtype for manogepix. Twelve of these (85.7%) were also non-wildtype for fluconazole. A statistically significant correlation was observed between manogepix and fluconazole MICs for C. albicans, C. dubliniensis, C. glabrata, C. parapsilosis and C. tropicalis (Pearson r=0.401-0.575), but not between manogepix and micafungin or amphotericin B MICs for any species except C. tropicalis (r=0.519 for manogepix versus micafungin).

Broad-spectrum activity was confirmed for manogepix against contemporary yeast. However, a 1-4 two-fold-dilution increase in manogepix MICs is observed in a subset of isolates with acquired fluconazole resistance. Further studies on the potential underlying mechanism and implication for optimal dosing are warranted.

Earlier genetic and inhibitor studies have shown that epigenetic regulation of gene expression is critical for malaria parasite survival in multiple life stages and a promising target for new anti-malarials. We therefore evaluated the activity of 350 diverse epigenetic inhibitors against multiple stages of Plasmodium falciparum. We observed ≥90% inhibition at 10 μM for 28% of compounds against asexual blood stages and early gametocytes, of which a third retained ≥90% inhibition at 1 μM.

The Penn State Smeal College of Business Center for the Business of Sustainability recently hosted the first in a series of virtual fireside discussions titled “The Impact of Coronavirus on Sustainability and Social Impact,” to explore how recent momentum in sustainability efforts has been altered.

Education Week's top English-language learner stories on 2019 explored who's teaching the nation's English-learners and the struggles those educators encounter on the job, how the Trump administration's immigration policies affected students and their families and examined why more schools in the Un

A new plan from Democratic presidential candidate and former special educator Elizabeth Warren touches on some glaring issues in special education: graduation disparities, hard-to-access school buildings, and discipline practices that disproportionately affect black, Latino, and Native American stud

The need for materials, training, guidance from district administrators, and access to staff with expertise in serving students with disabilities is especially acute in schools that serve primarily black and Latino students, a new survey finds.

Rural families are less likely to use special education or early intervention services than children living in urban areas, a new Centers for Disease Control survey reveals.

Amid coronavirus-related school closures, advocates worry Education Secretary Betsy DeVos may waive requirements of special education law if Congress signs off. Schools say it's difficult to meet some requirements during the pandemic.

Coleen A. Boyle
Jun 1, 2011; 127:1034-1042
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Vinod K. Bhutani
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Kate Costeloe
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States have made significant progress in providing the public-accountability report cards that the federal Every Student Succeeds Act requires, but many still have a long way to go to make them easily findable and understandable by parents, according to the latest analysis by the Data Quality Campai

States are taking advantage of the added flexibility given them under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act to adopt a wider range of indicators for measuring schools' educational progress, according to a report from the Learning Policy Institute.

New data from the National Center for Education Statistics find that principals at private schools tend to have more experience, 9.7 years on average leading schools versus 6.8 years for public school principals.

Teachers need coaching from proactive and intentional leaders who see everything in their buildings as their responsibility, writes guest blogger Michael Sonbert. Until then, teachers will bear the brunt of our national criticism.

Penn State Behrend faculty member Michael Campbell has been named distinguished professor of biology. Campbell, who joined the college in 1994, also directs the Lake Erie Regional Grape Research and Extension Center.

Allegations that some students lied about having disabilities so they could get special accommodations on college entrance exams have the disabilities community worried about a backlash.

The Center on Education Policy has two new reports pinpointing trouble spots in implementation of waiver plans under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Nairobi, Kenya, May 3, 2020 / 06:01 am (CNA).- At a one-room house outside Nairobi, a 23-year-old girl with disabilities claps her hands and throws herself at Sr. Rose Catherine Wakibiru, who has been visiting girls with disability at their homes since the Kenyan government closed schools last month over coronavirus.

The girl, referred to as Faith, “is deaf and dumb,” Sr. Rose Catherine of the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi, told ACI Africa April 27. “She is autistic and has cerebral palsy and so she doesn’t know anything about social distancing. She has pure love in her heart and she can’t stop embracing people to show how happy she is.”

Faith lived at Limuru Cheshire Home along with 60 other girls who have physical or intellectual disabilities, before the pandemic.

Sr. Rose Catherine, administrator of the home, called the girls’ parents and guardians to retrieve their children when schools were closed. 

“Most parents we called were not ready to pick their girls,” Sr. Rose Catherine said, adding that many girls at Cheshire home are drawn from poor backgrounds and that most come from informal settlements around Nairobi.

The nun explained that Faith initially lived with her mother and three siblings in a Nairobi slum, but they moved to another settlement “three weeks ago when their house was washed away in floods.”

When their house was washed away, Faith’s mother gave out her children to different well-wishers and looked for a place to stay herself. Later, friends helped her to get a single-roomed house where she stays with her three children and goes out to look for menial jobs to sustain her family.

Such jobs are hard to come by amid the restrictions due to coronavirus, and the family may be thrown out of their home as the mother is unable to pay for it.

Sr. Rose Catherine said five residents of the Cheshire home were taken in by other families, as they had nowhere to go.

“I know all [the] families that have their daughters here and I have an idea of those that can accommodate a girl [who] isn’t their own. So when I made those calls, I would ask a parent if they were willing to take care of an extra girl. That’s how I got all the five girls a place to stay,” said Sr. Rose Catherine.

To ease the burden of the foster parents, Limuru Cheshire Home supplies the girls with basic necessities such as food, soap, and sanitary materials in their new homes.

Some families were reluctant to have their daughters back home, and Sr. Rose Catherine said the biggest challenge for girls with disabilities and their families during coronavirus is poverty.

Most of the families “live on daily wages, and with their girls around they can’t go out and work as they used to. All the girls at the facility are special needs cases and they need someone to look after them” at all times, the nun said.

The girls also come last in families that grapple with lack of basic needs, such as food. When there is little food to share, children with disabilities do not get any of it, Sr. Rose Catherine reported.

“I have been to a home where I found my girl watching her siblings eat. When I asked her brother why her sister wasn’t eating anything, he said there was very little food in the house,” Sr. Rose Catherine recounted. “Children with disabilities are treated as second-rate individuals. People only think about them when everybody else has had their fill.”

Many of the girls’ families have asked the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi for help since having the girls returned to their care, and Sr. Rose Catherine has made at least eight home visits in recent weeks.

On each home visit, families are supplied with food, masks, and sanitizer.

“What we have at the moment is only enough to keep the families going for one more week, yet we have outreach plans for next week. We can only plan and hope that well-wishers will come on board to touch the lives of these vulnerable girls and their families,” Sr. Rose Catherine said.

 

A version of this story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's African news partner. It has been adapted by CNA.