Dermatophyte Infections In Primary School Children In Kibera Slums Of Nairobi

Objective: To determine the prevalence and aetiology of dermatophyte infections in relation to social economic factors in primary school children in Kibera.Design: A Cross- sectional descriptive study.Setting: City council sponsored schools namely Olympic, Kibera, Ayany and Mbagathi way all in Kibera, the largest of the informal settlement within Nairobi which is home to between 700,000 - 1,000,000 inhabitamts. The study was conducted between September 2006 and February 2007.Subjects: A total of 422 primary school children from the ages of five years to 15 years were selected for the study.Results: The prevalence of dermatophytoses was 11.2% with tinea capitis being the most common type while the grey patch form being the dominant clinical manifestation. There was a significant difference (p=0.001) in dermatophytoses in different schools with Olympic primary school registering the highest prevalence (22.6%). The highestinfection rate occurred among six to eight years age bracket in both sexes compared to other age brackets (p=0.002). The genera of fungi associated with dermatophytoses were isolated indicating the number in each species as follows; T. violecium (35), T. mentagrophytes(3), T. terestre(3), T. schoenleinii(2), and T. interdigitale(1), M. canis(2),M. equinum(1) and E. flocossum(1). T. violecium was the predominant species isolated, at 35/48(71%) followed by T. mentagrophytes and T. terrestre at 3/48 (6%) each. Conclusion: The study indicates high prevalence of 11.2% dermatophyte infection among the school children in Kibera. Factors contributing to the high frequency and chronic occurrences of ring worm in this area may include poor living environment, children interaction patterns and poor health seeking behaviour. There is need for health education and public awareness campaigns among the communities in urban informal settlements on healthy seeking behaviors and hygiene in order to reducetransmission and severe clinical manifestations

Association of Mothers’ Pediatric Tuberculosis Knowledge and Attitudes with Health Seeking Practices in Kapsabet Referral Hospital, Nandi County, Kenya

Tuberculosis (TB) is in the top rank of causes of pediatric morbidity and mortality. In 2017, approximately 1 million children were infected with the disease and 230,000 died. In Kenya, tuberculosis is number 4 on the causes of death with 6.3% of total deaths. Nandi County is one of the counties affected with Kapsabet Referral Hospital having a substantial number of cases for ages 0-14 years. The objective of the study was to assess the association of mothers’ pediatric tuberculosis knowledge and attitudes with health seeking practices in Kapsabet Referral Hospital, Nandi County, Kenya. A cross-sectional research design was used to do the study and data collected using Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) questionnaires based on World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Mothers attending Maternal Child Health (MCH) clinic having children aged 0-14 years were the target population. Purposive and systematic random sampling were employed and sample calculated using Rao soft online calculator. SPSS version 25.0 was used for analysis that is, descriptive statistics (frequency distribution tables, Pearson chi-square test, odds ratio) and multinomial logistic regression. Results were reported as statistically significant if p-values< 0.05. Results showed that mothers with children more than 2 (adj OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 0.69 to 2.05) and those with regular income (adj OR, 1.08; 95% CI, 0.67 to 1.72) were more likely to have good knowledge. Those with higher levels of education (adj OR, 1.19; 95% CI, 0.75 to 1.88), Christians (adj OR, 3.16; 95% CI, 0.84 to 11.88), and those with regular income (adj OR, 1.08; 95% CI, 0.67 to 1.72) were more likely to have positive attitudes. Most respondents 343 (97.2%) would seek health care in a health facility. Employment (adj OR, 0.55, 95% CI: 0.32-0.93, P value < 0.05) was statistically significant to overall mothers’ knowledge on pediatric TB. Age of mothers (adj OR: 0.70, 95% CI: 0.43-1.12, P value < 0.05) and number of children (adj OR, 0.57, 95% CI: 0.32-0.99, P value < 0.05) were statistically significant to overall pediatric TB attitudes of respondents. While Education (P value < 0.05) was statistically significant to overall health seeking practices. Those with good knowledge (OR: 1.83, 95% CI: 0.16-20.48) and positive attitudes (OR: 1.22, 95% CI: 0.11-13.65) were more likely to seek health care in a health facility as compared to visiting a pharmacy or a traditional healer. Generally, respondents had inadequate knowledge, positive attitudes and good health seeking practices towards pediatric TB. There was an association of knowledge and attitudes with health seeking practices. Therefore, regular pediatric TB education is recommended at MCH, Kapsabet Referral Hospital, Nandi County, Kenya. Keywords: Pediatric tuberculosis, Knowledge, Attitudes, Health seeking practice, Kenya, Nandi County, Kapsabet Referral Hospital DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/77-08 Publication date:July 31st 202

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices on Tomato Leaf Miner, Tuta absoluta on Tomato and Potential Demand for Integrated Pest Management among Smallholder Farmers in Kenya and Uganda

Agricultural growth and food security are a priority in many developing countries. This has led to increased attention to effective pest management. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategy is a sustainable and recommended alternative to the use of synthetic pesticides in the management of tomato pests, with Tuta absoluta being the major one. This study seeks to assess the awareness, attitude, and control practices on T. absoluta and examine the potential adoption of a proposed IPM strategy for the management of a pest using a randomly selected sample of 316 and 345 tomato growing households in Kenya and Uganda, respectively. The study findings indicate that T. absoluta is the major pest affecting tomato production, with most farmers using synthetic pesticides to manage it. Furthermore, we find a significant proportion of the survey respondents willing to adopt the IPM strategy. The probability of adopting the strategy was positively related to a farmer being male, residing near a source of inputs, accessing training, and possessing good knowledge, attitude, and practices towards the use of non-pesticides strategies. Thus, training, promotion, and awareness creation of the T. absoluta IPM are recommended for the sustainable management of the pest in tomato production

Scope for non-crop plants to promote conservation biological control of crop pests and serve as sources of botanical insecticides

Besides providing food and shelter to natural enemies of crop pests, plants used in conservation biological control interventions potentially provide additional ecosystem services including providing botanical insecticides. Here we concurrently tested the strength of these two services from six non-crop plants in managing cabbage pests in Ghana over three successive field seasons. Crop margin plantings of Ageratum conyzoides, Tridax procumbens, Crotalaria juncea, Cymbopogon citratus, Lantana camara and Talinum triangulare were compared with a bare earth control in a three-way split plot design such that the crop in each plot was sprayed with either a 10% (w/v) aqueous extract from the border plant species, a negative control (water) and a positive control (emamectin benzoate ‘Attack’ insecticide). Pests were significantly less numerous in all unsprayed treatments with non-crop plant margins and in corresponding sprayed treatments (with botanical or synthetic insecticide positive control) while treatments with bare earth margin or sprayed with water (negative controls) had the highest pest densities. Numbers of predators were significantly depressed by synthetic insecticide but higher in other treatments whether unsprayed or sprayed with botanical insecticide. We conclude that some plant species have utility in both conservation biological control and as source of botanical insecticides that are relatively benign to natural enemies. In this crop system, however, the additional cost associated with using botanical insecticides was not justified by greater levels of pest suppression than achieved from border plants alone