Two soap eating sisters diagnosed with 'severe iron deficiency'

Sharon Jepchirchir 24, Lidia Chepkemboi 17 and Monica Jebet (mother) at Kibochi village in Nandi County yesterday. The two sisters have been eating bar soaps since their childhood. (Peter Ochieng, Standard)

Two sisters from Nandi County with a rare appetite for soap have been diagnosed with severe iron deficiency.

The two girls, Sharon Chepchirchir, 24, and her sister Lydia Chepkemboi, 17, underwent a series of tests at Oak Tree Hospital in Eldoret.  It was established they had acute low iron levels with Chepkemboi exhibiting ‘out of proportion’ low iron levels in the blood.