ABSTRACT Inadequate access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene constitutes a serious global threat to health accounting for approximately 4 billion cases of illness annually. Children under five years in the developing world are most affected, where nearly 1.6 million deaths are recorded annually due to diarrhea alone. This accounts for 15% of all deaths among under fives. Poor sanitation and hygiene practices are among the main factors associated with sanitary diseases. The purpos...
ABSTRACT The immunobiology of African trypanosomes in the context of both parasite and host survival are tightly interconnected and ultimately determine the complicated traits of host tolerance versus susceptibility. Multigene control of variation in susceptibility to the pathological effects of trypanosomiasis, the most prominent being anaemia, is known to occur in domestic livestock populations. The aetiology of trypanosomiasis-associated anaemia in cattle is multifactorial with enhanced er...
ABSTRACT Insecticide- treated nets (ITNs) if used correctly are the most powerful malaria control intervention tools which have been recommended by most governments in the world. Yet up to date, use is still very low in some places with only three percent of African sleeping under an ITN and about 20 percent sleeping under any kind of net. Worse still, malaria continues to be the leading cause of mortality and morbidity among the Jaggery and tea workers in both sugar cane and tea industr...
ABSTRACT The public food industry in Bungoma has been experiencing numerous challenges in their quest to comply with the Public Health Act (CAP 242), especially section 126. Consequently, the study sought to establish the extent of compliance with the provisions of Section 126 of the Public Health Act (Cap 242) by public food places in Bungoma County, Kenya. The government has channeled few resources towards enforcement of public health laws in the county regardless of the high levels of cour...
ABSTRACT The new constitution promulgated in 2010 clearly state every Kenyan without discrimination is entitled to the highest attainable quality of health care, which is not reflected with the current challenges men-who-have-sex with- men continue to face in the sexual health service utilization. Kenya struggles in its response to this ongoing crisis amongst MSM in many areas including disease prevention, treatment, and HIV related stigma, prejudice, and discrimination. Currently little info...
ABSTRACT Root-knot nematodes (RKN) (Meloidogyne spp.) cause up to 80 % yield losses in infected vegetables. A study was carried out to; assess the influence of farmers’ knowledge and awareness on RKN damage on African nightshades (AFNS); assess the incidence and severity of RKN on AFNS; characterize the RKN species infecting AFNS; screen the AFNS for response to RKN and determine the efficacy of solarizing soils amended with selected organic materials against RKN. A root-knot nematode surve...
ABSTRACT Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection poses a grave public health problem worldwide. Over two billion people are infected and an estimated 387 million of these suffering from chronic HBV infection, with a rate of ten million new carriers each year. Another one million die annually. About 90% of these cases live in developing countries with half of Kenya’s population being estimated to be infected by HBV by the age of 30-40. Health care workers are among the most vulnerable groups to ac...
ABSTRACT Rift Valley Fever (RVF) is an emerging viral disease which causes among other problems severe hemorrhagic syndrome, retinitis and meningo-encephalitis in humans. The disease was previously thought to be a disease of animals but it is increasingly developing to be a human health problem. Two human RVF epidemics have previously occurred in Kenya (1997-1997; 2006-2007) each resulting to human deaths. Most RVF outbreaks occur in rural locations where keeping of livestock is the main liv...
Abstract Diarrhoea is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Bacterial agents are among pathogens implicated to cause diarrhoea in children and are of major concern in public health. Antibiotic use has paradoxically led to bacterial resistance and the situation continues to worsen. The main objective of the study, therefore, was to determine enteric bacterial isolates and their susceptibility to antibiotics from diarrhoeal stool samples among children below five yea...
ABSTRACT Cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. Var. capitata) is an important vegetable crop in Kenya. It is widely used as human food and animal feed. Owing to findings that cabbage is a poor host to root knot nematode (RKN), this crop has been incorporated in plant parasitic nematode (PPN) management as a rotation crop. As a result very little has been done to study nematodes associated with this crop, yet there are reports of nematodes infecting it. A survey was therefore conducted in Nyandarua a...
ABSTRACT Access to Health care by the elderly can be defined as the ability of the aged to get the required medical care from the health service providers when they need it. It’s a comprehensive measurement of access to health care that requires a systematic assessment of physical, financial and socio-psychological access to services. These are further defined into three basic indicators: availability, affordability and acceptability. The proportion of the elderly is increasing rapidly in K...
ABSTRACT HIV/AIDS is a debilitating disease associated with high mortality and morbidity globally. In Kenya, it is the major cause of mortality across all gender and age groups, in effect, putting a huge demand on the healthcare system and the economy. The HIV 1 positive population faces major challenges such as the drug resistance, severe hepatic coupled with immunological deficiencies and toxicity. The problems are aggravated by co-infection with blood borne diseases, varied responses to th...
ABSTRACT Globally, the reported attrition rates of Community Health Workers (CHWs) vary between 3.2% and 77% with high rates being associated with volunteer CHWs. In Kenya, retention rate is estimated at 67% while in Makueni it varies between 50% and 98%. The success of community programmes is often hampered by low retention rates which affects the sustainability of interventions and increases training costs, since it needs continuous replacement which makes the programme difficult to manage....
ABSTRACT Information is inevitable in the health profession. The need to become informed and knowledgeable which leads to “information seeking behaviour processes” is important among qualified health professionals who have vital roles in achieving health goals of a given country. However, in Kenya, little effort have been made in understanding the information seeking behaviour of health professionals compared to effort made towards developing new information technologies. Therefore, the g...
ABSTRACT The study was conducted in Gadamoji Division of the hilly Marsabit district, an Arid and Semi-arid area. The aim was to determine the relationship between levels of indoor air pollutants from lighting fuels and respiratory disease incidence. To obtain comparative data, an experimental phase was conducted off the study area. The main objectives were to quantify levels of particulate matter due to lighting fuel emissions, compare results with World Health Organization (WHO) air quality...