Distribution of fluoride in beans and maize grown along the slope of Mount Meru, Tanzania

This research article published by the Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences, Vol. 15, No. 5, 2019This study assessed the uptake and distribution of fluoride in maize and beans grown in fluoride contaminated soils, (Ngarenanyuki) around Mount Meru in Northern Tanzania during the rainy season. The study revealed that fluoride uptake increases with increasing fluoride concentration in soils except in a stem and root part of maize and beans respectively. It was observed that fluoride accumulation followed the order of soil >roots > leaves >stem >grain > cob for maize, while the order soil> root> grain> stem was observed for the beans. when the soil contained 116.93ppm of fluoride, the corresponding plants harvested had the mean fluoride accumulation (ppm dry weight) in root, leaves, stem, grain, and cob of maize of 38.560, 24.251, 10.629, 7.7756 and 2.100 respectively, while the soil with 129.2ppm mean fluoride concentration, the accumulation in root, grain, and stem of beans were 16.27, 11.328 and 8.459 respectively. It was reported that beans plant had a higher efficiency in fluoride uptake to bean grain than maize plant. Maize and bean grain collected from Ngarenanyuki contains higher fluoride levels than other fluoride endemic areas. It was also reported that fluoride in the soil samples has a strongly positive correlation with sodium (p-0.000). This suggests that there is a high possibility of fluoride to be present in the form of NaF. Significant accumulation of fluoride in both bean and maize were observed in this study at p≤ 0.05

The burden of co-existing dermatological disorders and their tendency of being overlooked among patients admitted to muhimbili national hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

\ud Skin diseases are underestimated and overlooked by most clinicians despite being common in clinical practice. Many patients are hospitalized with co-existing dermatological conditions which may not be detected and managed by the attending physicians. The objective of this study was to determine the burden of co-existing and overlooked dermatological disorders among patients admitted to medical wards of Muhimbili National hospital in Dar es Salaam. A hospital-based descriptive cross-sectional study conducted at Muhimbili National hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Patients were consecutively recruited from the medical wards. Detailed interview to obtain clinico-demographic characteristics was followed by a complete physical examination. Dermatological diagnoses were made mainly clinically. Appropriate confirmatory laboratory investigations were performed where necessary. Data was analyzed using the 'Statistical Package for Social Sciences' (SPSS) program version 10.0. A p-value of < 0.5 was statistically significant. Three hundred and ninety patients admitted to medical wards were enrolled into the study of whom, 221(56.7%) were females. The mean age was 36.7 ± 17.9 (range 7-84 years). Overall, 232/390 patients (59.5%) had co-existing dermatological disorders with 49% (191/390) having one, 9% (36/390) two and 5 patients (1%) three. A wide range of co-existing skin diseases was encountered, the most diverse being non-infectious conditions which together accounted for 36.4% (142/390) while infectious dermatoses accounted for 31.5% (123/390). The leading infectious skin diseases were superficial fungal infections accounting for 18%. Pruritic papular eruption of HIV/AIDS (PPE) and seborrheic eczema were the most common non-infectious conditions, each accounting for 4.3%. Of the 232/390 patients with dermatological disorders, 191/232 (82.3%) and 154/232 (66.3%) had been overlooked by their referring and admitting doctors respectively. Dermatological disorders are common among patients admitted to medical wards and many are not detected by their referring or admitting physicians. Basic dermatological education should be emphasized to improve knowledge and awareness among clinicians.\u

Breeding cassava for brown streak resistance: regional cassava variety development strategy based on farmers and consumer preferences

Cassava is an important food crop in the East African coastal lowlands. However, yields are low due to various reasons amongst which are pests and diseases. Cassava brown streak virus disease (CBSD) is one of the major diseases of economic importance in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi. Yield losses attributed to CBSD ranging from 49-74% have recently been reported in some coastal areas of Tanzania. It is estimated that in Tanzania alone, CBSD causes economic losses of more than USD 16,000,000 annually. The wide adoption of resistant varieties is the best sustainable control strategy. However, only a hand full of resistant/tolerant varieties is available in each of the severely affected countries. In order to increase the number of resistant varieties available to farmers, a seedling nursery was raised at Kibaha, Tanzania. About 513 seedlings were selected and cloned for further evaluation. At Kibaha, CBSD disease pressure and spread was very high. Therefore, 88% of the harvested seedling were infected. This indicated that this site was ideal for screening cassava genotypes for resistance to CBSD. Although the vector is still unknown, it was very active and infective at this site. Because the seedlings were raised from botanical seeds, ruling out the chance of vegetative plant material transmission, these results prove that vector transmission can account for a large percentage of plants infected in a field. Families with a high percentage of number of seedlings selected {PNSS} included Kiroba, 71762 and 188/00188. The importance of marking diseased seedlings during the growing season is discussed. Furthermore, massive introduction of germplasm through open quarantine, the establishment of crossing blocks to generate improved genotypes and the use of a decentralized participatory evaluation procedure have been initiated as important strategies towards availing farmers with a wider choice of improved varieties