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...
ABSTRACT Malnutrition, also defined as bad nutrition, is a serious public-health problem that has been linked to a substantial increase in the risk of mortality and morbidity among the affected populations. A large proportion of malnourished children are not enrolled in the treatment program as expected. The objective was to examine the factors that determine use of the Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition services for children less than five years by caregivers within Embakas...
ABSTRACT Aflatoxins are fungal metabolites which are toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic and thus cause undesirable effects on animal and human health when ingested with feed or foodstuffs. Aflatoxin producing fungi may occur in certain food products in form of spores, and thus when conditions are favourable, the fungi germinate and may produce aflatoxin in varied amounts. Ingestion of higher dose of aflatoxin (Codex Commission upper limit is 10ppb), may result in aflatoxicosis which manifests ...
ABSTRACT Ground water contamination has become one of the main environmental issues and a challenge to the world population especially in arid and semi-arid areas. The levels of physico-chemical parameters of ground water exceeding the Kenya Bureau of Standards permissible guidelines have resulted to health problems among the water users especially in rural areas of developing countries, where a significant number of serious human health problems have been reported. Kenya being a water scarce...
ABSTRACT Malnutrition has been recognized as a common problem among the elderly persons and is associated with certain diseases and impaired functioning, but less is known about its relationship with nutrition intake and nutritional care among the elderly residents. This study determined the association of functionality and nutritional status of the Institutionalized elderly and compared with that of the elderly living with their family or community members. It also compared the functionality...