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...
ABSTRACT In sub-Saharan Africa, malaria is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Detailed knowledge of spatial variation of malaria epidemiology and associated risk factors is important for planning and evaluating malaria-control measures. This study therefore investigated an approach in the development and application of a GIS-based healthcare management system with abilities to incorporate climate-based risk predicators of malaria transmission in Nyanza Province. Two sites, Siaya...
ABSTRACT Malaria is a major contributor of ill health and death particularly among infants and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. The infected erythrocytes sequester in the placenta and may be present throughout the whole pregnancy period. Although microscopy is the gold standard method currently acceptable in diagnosis of malaria in hospital, it is unreliable because during pregnancy, malaria parasites disappear from peripheral circulation and remain undetectable through microscopic exami...
ABSTRACT Fish feed is one of the critical components in aquaculture production and accounts for over 60% of total operational costs with protein component being the most expensive ingredient. Traditionally, fishmeal (FM) has been the primary dietary animal protein source. However, with dwindling capture fisheries, FM has become increasingly scarce and expensive due to its demand from human consumers and livestock feed manufacturers. This in turn makes the cost of fish feeds expensive leading...
ABSTRACT Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has been successful in dramatically decreasing the morbidity and mortality caused by HIV infection. Levels of adherence in excess of 95% are required to ensure treatment success, adequate viral load suppression, improved immune status and slowing of the disease progression. It has also been reported that a lot of complacency during ART and feeling of reduced infectivity by the patients on ART could lead to high risk sexual behaviour and enhance transmiss...