ABSTRACT It is evident that iron in childhood is key for proper health and cognitive development as it is required for academic and work productivity in adulthood. Intake of iron rich foods, sanitation, health, economic and socio-demographic factors are principal determinants of Iron- deficiency anaemia (IDA) in children. There is paucity of data concerning the prevalence of IDA in children aged 6-23 months since most studies focus mainly on the selection of iron rich foods as criteria for de...
ABSTRACT Solanum nigrum L., Cleome gynandra L. and Amaranthus spp. are some of the indigenous leafy vegetables (ILVs) that contribute to food diet, income generation, good nutrition and health to resource-poor farmers in Kisii and Trans-Mara counties. The production of ILVs is constrained by inadequate land, diseases and pests of which, root-knot nematodes (RKN) are the most damaging pests to vegetable crops causing about 30 % yield losses globally. However, there is no information about the ...
ABSTRACT Plasmodium falciparun, the deadliest malaria parasite, comprises 96% of malaria infections in Kenya, with Lake Victoria basin‟s prevalence at above 38%. The coexistence of malaria and anaemia in pre-school children is a public health problem in Bondo District. Malaria mortality increases with severity of under nutrition, with severely malnourished children being more likely to die from malaria than their well nourished counterparts. There are few studies comparing dietary practice...
ABSTRACT Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are being increasingly recognized as serious global health problem with impact on individual women and men, their families and communities. They can have severe consequences, including infertility, ectopic pregnancy, chronic pelvic pain, miscarriage, and increased risk of HIV transmission. STIs are the main preventable cause of infertility, particularly in women. The general objective of the study was to establish the determinants of health see...
ABSTRACT Anaemia is a disease, according to the World Health Organization, in which the haemoglobin concentration is below 12 g/dl of blood. The prevalence of anaemia in school going children in Africa is 64.6% while in Asia it is 47.7%. Anaemia is also prevalent among women and infants and threatens the life of millions of people every year. Modern therapies in management of anaemia are either too expensive or unavailable to many communities. Use of plants in the management of anaemia is no...
ABSTRACT Family planning is an important aspect of primary health care. In order to improve the efficacy of available contraceptive methods, it is of importance to identify factors influencing women’s choice of contraception. In Kenya, like many other sub-Saharan countries, prevention of unintended pregnancies among HIV positive women as a strategy for PMTCT has been neglected. This has resulted in a large population of HIV positive women who have a substantial degree of unmet need for fam...
ABSTRACT Active Management of the Third Stage of Labor (AMTSL) is an evidence-based, low-cost intervention focusing prevention of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) which accounts for over 25% globally and Kenya at 33.9% translating to 510 deaths /100,000 live births. The study aimed at assessing knowledge and competencies of midwives in active management of third stage of labor in health facilities of Meru County. The study adopted a descriptive cross sectional design and utilized stratified rand...
ABSTRACT Malaria is a major public health challenge in Kenya especially among young children and pregnant women. It accounts for 30% of all outpatient attendances, 19% of all admissions and leads to 20% of all deaths in children aged below five years. Despite much effort to fight malaria, the efforts have been undermined by malaria parasites that develop resistance to the commonly available malaria drugs. Since a new antimalarial drug, Artemether - Lumefantrine (AL) was introduced in Kenya i...
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 ...
ABSTRACT Sanitation has been a thorny issue especially in many informal settlements all over the world with the third world countries being highly affected. Therefore people living in these affected areas are exposed to these deplorable conditions. Kenya is not spared either and therefore our informal settlements are suffering from myriad of sanitation related problems that are causing slum residents to be unprotected from all manner of exposures. Since there are a lot of underlying factors ...
ABSTRACT In 2006, Kenya developed and adopted Community Health Strategy as a means of enhancing community access to Healthcare services. Although there has been scientific evidence that community based health approaches are effective in delivering specific health services, there has been little effort to examine the performance of the Kenya’s Community Health Strategy against sanitation indicators. This analytical cross-sectional study was therefore designed to evaluate the effects of Comm...
Introduction The 2020 World Bank data estimates Nigeria's population to be about 202 million. Nigeria is also a multi-ethnic federation with 36 states spread across 6 geopolitical regions (North-Central, North-West, North-East, South-South, South-East, and South-West) and the Federal Capital Territory. The country's major source of revenue is oil and gas, with a Gross domestic product (GDP) of 23.4 billion USD. Health expenditure accounts for 3.7% of the total GDP and the total per capital e...
ABSTRACT Sanitation is a basic necessity that contributes to better human health, dignity and quality of life. The economic and social benefits of sanitation interventions create more time for productive pursuits, higher productivity, better performance at school and work, lower medical costs.Despite Nyeri County ranked by the Ministry of Health as number one county in terms of sanitation coverage, it has 25.4% unimproved sanitation and 0.3 % open defecation. This study was designed to ident...
ABSTRACT The desire to correct the poor implementation of traditional antenatal care (ANC) in developing countries resulted to the adoption of antenatal care model termed as Focused Antenatal Care (FANC). The goal of FANC is to ensure a good outcome for both the baby and mother and prevent complication during pregnancy, labor, delivery and postpartum period. It is characterized by four main focused visits. Studies have shown that Kenya has long suffered from high maternal morbidity and morta...
ABSTRACT Cause of diarrhea is known to have many risk factors. They include unsafe water, lack of water leading to low personal and domestic hygiene, poor water infrastructural and management systems. Contamination of drinking water is known to be a problem in many developing countries. This is even of more concern in high residential low income areas. Nairobi City is not an exception hence this study was conducted in Kasarani to assess diarrhea disease attributed to water, sanitation and hy...