ABSTRACT When implemented according to the set standards and guidelines, antenatal care (ANC) contributes greatly to better health outcomes for women and their infants. Despite the implementation of World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines for focussed antenatal care (FANC) known to improve quality and high utilisation of antenatal care services in Kenya, maternal mortality rates remains unacceptably high at 414 per 100,000 live births. Only 42% of women deliver with a skilled provider indi...
ABSTRACT Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is recommended up to 6 months of age, with continued breastfeeding along with appropriate complementary foods up to two years of age or beyond. Failure to exclusively breastfeed for six months is associated with increased risk of childhood mortality and morbidity. There is paucity of information that analyses the disparity in Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) among primiparous and multiparous mothers. This study aimed to compare the KAP of EBF bet...
ABSTRACT Growth monitoring and promotion (GMP) is a preventive activity that uses growth monitoring, in measuring and interpreting growth. It facilitates communication and interaction with the caregiver to generate adequate action to promote child growth. GMP is meant for children 0 to 59 months of age, but available data indicates that for the majority it stops when immunization is completed at 9 months. Scientific data demonstrates that if growth monitoring (GM) is done appropriately, it ca...
ABSTRACT The Human Immune deficiency Virus(HIV) and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) situation in Kenya has affected blood collection in the country leading to a decline from 150,000 units to about 70,000 units annually, yet the demand for blood in Kenya exceeds 300,000 units per year. Schools are major sources of blood in all counties of Kenya and more than 60% of blood in Kenya is collected from secondary school students but the data on HIV prevalence in this category of donor...
ABSTRACT Prostate carcinoma (PCa) is the leading cancer among middle and elderly men worldwide. It accounts for 15% of all cancer cases and 6.6% of all cancer associated-deaths in men. PCa is a leading cause of cancer burden among men in Africa with Kenya reporting an incidence of 16.6/100,000. The exceedingly high burden of PCa is largely due to lack of population-based screening and delayed diagnosis in the background of genetic and environmental predisposing factors. Histopathological feat...
ABSTRACT Taenia solium taeniasis is an intestinal parasitic disease caused by infection with Taenia solium is also referred to as the pork tapeworm. The main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and the risk factors that may lead to T. solium taeniasis amongst the community in Thika Sub County. A cross-sectional study design was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The study was carried out in Thika Sub-County from November 2016 to January 2017. The study...
ABSTRACT Prostate cancer is the number one cancer afflicting men in Africa and a leading cancer killer among Kenyan men. Although there is scarcity of information on the disease in African men, higher awareness with concomitant low levels on knowledge, attitudes and perception of self-risk to the disease were established among urban men in West Africa. In addition, uptake of prostate cancer screening by African men has remained extremely low despite the fact that early screening and detection...
ABSTRACT Born before arrival (BBA) is a childbirth that occurs outside health facility. BBA constitute a high-risk newborn population and have increased perinatal mortality and morbidity. BBA neonatal adverse birth outcome prolong hospital stay. Tharaka Nithi was among Counties with the highest number of BBA (2 %) compared with national (0.9%). The objective of the study was to assess risk factors associated with BBA and birth outcome among postnatal women in Tharaka Nithi County. The study u...
ABSTRACT It is becoming increasingly evident that trace elements such as chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), vanadium (V) and iron (Fe) are therapeutically useful as they play vital role in immune boosting. It is therefore possible that effectiveness of certain medicinal plants may be due to either interaction of the metals with organic molecules or these trace elements alone are effective in improving or boosting immunity. There has been an increased use of medicinal plants due to high...
ABSTRACT Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pose a great threat to the global public health. Control of these bacteria has become difficult due to acquisition of resistance against even some of the best antibiotics. Thus, phage therapy could be the better alternative as they are easy to isolate and produce in mass within a short time. However, phage therapy has been a subject of debate over the years but recently there has been a renewed interest due to their proved therapeuti...
ABSTRACT Environmental concerns, production costs, reprocessability, and weight of traditional polymer-based composites are major issues that have heightened research in the field of materials science. Thus research on the development of new classes of composites called self-reinforced polymer composites has intensified. Self-reinforced polypropylene composites prepared by compression moulding were examined in this study. This study produced composites (SRPPCs) reinforced with polypropylene f...
ABSTRACT The study was occasioned by the resultant effect of poor quality service provision in most health institutions in Kenya. Patient satisfaction after physician consultation, health literacy and patient compliance to medication have been noted to be very low at
ABSTRACT Human immunodeficiency virus-1(HIV-1) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection are two rapidly growing epidemics and health concerns strongly driven by injection drug use (IDU) in Kenya and the entire world. Inflammatory cytokines are important mediators of the host response to HIV-1 and HCV infections including injection drugs. However, the molecular interaction between HIV-1 and HCV co-infection and correlation with injection drug use is largely undefined. Therefore, this cross-sec...
ABSTRACT The four fixed dose combination (FDC) anti-Tuberculosis (TB) drugs that the Kenyan government supplies through the National Leprosy and Tuberculosis Programme (NLTP) to the health facilities must be of high quality and effective in order to ensure success in TB treatment. According to Global Drug Facility (GDF), treatment of TB with poor quality anti-TB drugs could result in treatment failures as well as leading to drug resistance to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It also has deleteriou...
ABSTRACT Family planning (FP) is one of the fundamental pillars of safe motherhood and a reproductive health right. However, the Northern arid lands of Kenya, where Moyale Sub- County lies, have continued to record low levels of family planning services uptake. This situation has led to poor health outcomes among women, children and the general population thus poor progress towards achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Consequently, this study set out to determine the modern con...