Prevalence of Gastrointestinal Parasitic Infections among Food Handlers in Eldoret Municipality, Kenya

Intestinal parasitic infections remain an important public health problem in the tropics where poor hygiene and sanitation are a norm rather than an exception.  Food handlers play a significant role in the transmission of these parasites to consumers. The objective of this cross sectional study was to determine the prevalence and distribution of single and multiple species of intestinal parasitic infections among food handlers working in Eldoret Municipality between May to December 2007.  Stool samples from 335 food handlers of both sexes, aged between 16 and 58 years were analyzed using macroscopic and microscopic direct stool examination of wet and Lugol’s iodine preparations and Formal-Ether concentration techniques. Positive fecal samples were found in 79 (23.7%) food handlers. The results indicated that there was presence of intestinal protozoans and helminthes among food handlers with protozoans being the majority, infecting 14.1% food handlers and consisting of E. histolytica (7.2%), E. coli (5.7%) and G. lamblia (1.2%). The overall prevalence of helminthes was 6.6% in the order of T. saginata (2.4%), A. duodenale (2.1%), A. lumbricoides (1.5%), and H. nana (0.6%). Among the species of protozoans and helminthes, the genus Entamoeba had significantly (p < 0.05) the highest prevalence than all the others. High prevalence of the intestinal parasitic infections was recorded among the food handlers working in butcheries (51.0%), Supermarkets (31.6%) and slaughterhouses (30.3%). Temporal variation in the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections was significant (p < 0.05) with prevalence of intestinal protozoans and T. saginata being the highest during the rainy period. The results of this study indicated improper hygiene and sanitation conditions. Interventions were therefore needed to address the root behavioural and occupational related causes of these parasitic infections to reduce the intolerable burden caused by these parasites. There is need to increase awareness of the food handlers and the responsible officials in various food establishments on the importance of personal hygiene and pre-employment and periodic stool examination for ova and cysts of the parasites to curtail transmission. Keywords: Intestinal parasites, prevalence, food handlers, Eldoret Municipalit

Prevalence of Cryptosporidiosis in Calves in Large Scale Dairy Farms in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Background: Studies were conducted on prevalence and distribution of Cryptosporidium parvum in calves aged below 3 months in University of Eldoret farm and other farms in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya for a period of six months in 2009.During the study period, 241 and 80 dung samples were collected from diarrhoeic and non-diarrhoeic calves respectively and microscopically examined.  Stool from the livestock was analysed for the presence of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts by Zinc sulphate floatation technique followed by Ziel-Neelsen staining method. Results:   Prevalence of Cryptosporidium parvum in diarrhoeic calves was 75%, 70.6%, 62.5% and 38.5% for Kobilo, Sirikwa B, University of Eldoret and Sirikwa A farms respectively.  Prevalence of Cryptosporidium parvum in the non-diarrhoeic calves was 45%, 15%, 10% and 5% for the same farms respectively. Conclusions: Cryptosporidium parvum was positively related to the diarrhoeic status of the calves (p< 0.05).  The prevalence of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts was significantly higher in diarrhoeic animals than in non-diarrhoeic ones.  It was concluded that the overall prevalence and distribution of Cryptosporidium parvum was associated with diarrhoea in calves.  However, there is need for a long term study to elucidate the effect of other risk factors for Cryptosporidium parvum infection in calves, and the occurrence of diarrhoea in relation to cryptosporidiosis and other infections. Keywords: Cryptosporidium parvum, prevalence, diarrhoea, calve

Outcomes and safety of concomitant nevirapine and rifampicin treatment under programme conditions in Malawi.

SETTING: Thyolo District Hospital, rural Malawi. OBJECTIVES: To report on 1) clinical, immunological and virological outcomes and 2) safety among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients with tuberculosis (TB) who received concurrent nevirapine (NVP) and rifampicin (RMP) based treatment. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. METHODS: Analysis of programme data, June-December 2007. RESULTS: Of a total of 156 HIV-infected TB patients who started NVP-based antiretroviral treatment, 136 (87%) completed TB treatment successfully, 16 (10%) died and 5 (4%) were transferred out. Mean body weight and CD4 gain (adults) were respectively 4.4 kg (95%CI 3.3-5.4) and 140 cells/mm(3) (95%CI 117-162). Seventy-four per cent of patients who completed TB treatment and had a viral load performed (n = 74) had undetectable levels (<50 copies/ml), while 17 (22%) had a viral load of 50-1000 copies/ml. Hepatotoxicity was present in 2 (1.3%) patients at baseline. Two patients developed Grade 2 and one developed Grade 3 alanine transaminase enzyme elevations during TB treatment (incidence rate per 10 years of follow-up 4.2, 95%CI 1.4-13.1). There were no reported deaths linked to hepatotoxicity. CONCLUSIONS: In a rural district in Malawi, concomitant NVP and RMP treatment is associated with good TB treatment outcomes and appears safe. Further follow-up of patients would be useful to ascertain the longer-term effects of this concurrent treatment

Modelling the Impacts of Immigrants on COVID 19 Transmission Dynamics with Control Measures

The COVID-19 pandemic began in Wuhan City in the Hubei province of China in December 2019. The disease spread quickly in many countries around the world due to mobility of people from one location to another. As a result, a COVID-19 mathematical model with the impacts on immigrants was proposed to study its transmission dynamics and possible control measures. The reproduction number was determined by using the next-generation technique and found to be 0.636, indicating that the transmission could be minimized in the community if all immigrants were effectively controlled. The Pontryagin's Maximum Principle was applied in analysing control strategies which are screening of immigrants, provision of public education to raise community awareness, and treatment of infected individuals. The simulated results revealed that a combination of public education, screening of all immigrants, and treatment of infected individuals plays a significant role in reducing COVID-19 transmission in the community. Keywords: COVID-19; Immigrants; Optimal control theory

Influence of transition metal ion (mn4+) on mullite formation in a mixture of 50:50 Nigerian kaolin and calcined alumina

In the present investigation, 5 wt% chemical grade MnO2 was added in a mixture of 50:50 Nigerian sources of kaolin and superfine calcined alumina powder and effect of this transition metal ion on their physico-mechanical properties, phase and microstructural evolution were studied during heating in the temperature range of 1,400–1,650°C. The heated samples were found to be highly porous (>30%) in this entire temperature range. The doping of 5 wt% MnO2 in this mixture did not improved the densification, but resulted into higher flexural strength (26 MPa) at 1,400°C compared to 7 MPa in the undoped sample. At 1,650°C, the reverse trend was observed, the flexural strength of undoped sample was found to be higher (38 MPa) than doped sample (27 MPa). The XRD study revealed the formation of mullite as major and corundum as minor phases in both the samples. The microstructural study shown the presence of needle shaped mullite crystals and corundum grains. The presence of inter-granular and intra-granular pores in MnO2 doped samples might have reduced the strength at 1,650°C. The aspect ratio of mullite needle at 1,650°C was found to be higher in doped sample. The theoretical and experimental value of >4 for MnO2 ion has been validated

Characterization of Cinnamadehyde Compound Isolated from Cinnamon Oil and Its Salmonella Typhy Antibacterial Activity

Today many infectious diseases are common. All of the diseases are caused by agents such as viruses or bacteria which are pathogenic and Salmonella typhi is one of the pathogenic bacteria. In addition, many antibiotics are not able to work properly because of the resistance of bacteria against the exciting antibiotics. Therefore, research to discover the new anti-bacterial compounds derived from natural materials is important to do. This research was conducted in several stages, that involved: (1) Isolation of cinnamaldehyde from cinnamon oil by two methods: thin layer chromatography using n-hexane: ethanol eluent at a ratio of 5 : 95 and bisulfate additional, (2) Identification of cinnamaldehyde by UV-Vis Spectrophotometer and GC-MS to define its purity, (3) The various concentrations of the cinnamaldehyde extracts were incubated with Salmonella typhi bacteria to evaluate the antibacterial activities of the extracts, (4) The growth of the tested bacteria wasobserved using a colony counter to see the diameter of the resistance which was caused by the test solution. Analysis result of Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrophotometer showed that cinnamon oil (Cassia oil) contains cinnamaldehyde as the main component of 88.33 %. The isolation of cinnamaldehyde by bisulfate addition method obtained cinnamaldehyde as yellow fluid with a yield of 86.79 %. The antibacterial activity test indicated that cinnamaldehyde had the potential as an antibacterialagainst the Salmonella typhi which was known from its inhibition zone. At the concentration of 100 ppm, cinnamaldehyde solution showed an inhibitory diameter of 15.4 mm and amoxicillin antibiotic showed of 16.6 mm. Keywords: activity, antibacterial, cinnamaldehyde, isolation, characterization, inbihitory zon

An Investigation on Impact of Free Primary Education on Quality of Education in Kenya Primary Schools

Primary education in Kenya has become a constitutional right for every school going child. This was in fulfillment of international obligations like Education for All by 2015, in order to achieve this Kenya government introduced Free Primary Education (FPE) in 2003 to achieve universal primary education (UPE) by 2005. This noble policy in Kenya benefited 1.3 million school going children who would not have afforded many levies charged by primary schools. This notwithstanding the programme was implemented without proper preparation compromising the quality of education. The study looked at the implication of text book ratio, teacher’s pupils’ ratio and teachers’ perception on the quality of FPE in Kenya. The study used survey design whereby quantitative and qualitative data was generated. The target population was 71 public primary schools in Embu East Sub- County in Kenya. Simple random sampling procedure was used to select a sample of 30% of target population. The instruments used included open and closed ended questionnaires which were administered by the researcher to the respondents mainly schools head teachers and teachers. The data was analyzed through statistical programme where percentages were got and deductions made. The study found out that FPE had improved enrolment by 68%. Over 50% reported that the text book ratio was 1:3, teacher pupil ratio was observed to be more than 1:40 in 31.8% of the sampled cases and the perception on quality was found to be good at 86.4% of the respondents. The findings recommended adequate funds should be availed for FPE programme to ensure adequate teachers and textbooks to improve quality of education in Kenya Primary schools. Keywords: Free Primary Education (FPE), quality education, teacher-pupil ratio, text book ratio perception, pupil, teacher, head teacher

Accelerating the Discovery of g-C3_3N4_4-Supported Single Atom Catalysts for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction: A Combined DFT and Machine Learning Strategy

Two-dimensional materials supported by single atom catalysis (SACs) are foreseen to replace platinum for large-scale industrial scalability of sustainable hydrogen generation. Here, a series of metal (Al, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn) and non-metal (B, C, N, O, F, Si, P, S, Cl) single atoms embedded on various active sites of g-C$_3$N$_4$ are screened by DFT calculations and six machine learning (ML) algorithms (support vector regression, gradient boosting regression, random forest regression, AdaBoost regression, multilayer perceptron regression, ridge regression). Our results based on formation energy, Gibbs free energy and bandgap analysis demonstrate that the single atoms of B, Mn and Co anchored on g-C$_3$N$_4$ can serve as highly efficient active sites for hydrogen production. The ML model based on support vector regression (SVR) exhibits the best performance to accurately and rapidly predict the Gibbs free energy of hydrogen adsorption (${\Delta}$GH ) for the test set with a lower mean absolute error (MAE) and a high coefficient of determination (R$^2$) of 0.45 and 0.81, respectively. Feature selection based on the SVR model highlights the top five primary features: formation energy, bond length, boiling point, melting point, and valance electron as key descriptors. Overall, the multistep work-flow employed through DFT calculations combined with ML models for efficient screening of potential hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) from g-C$_3$N$_4$-based single atom catalysis can significantly contribute to the catalyst design and fabrication.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Occupational Safety and Health Accidents among Biomedical Waste Handlers in Nairobi County

This study was conducted to investigate the reasons for prevalent increase in the number of occupational accidents among biomedical waste handlers despite the Waste Management Authority’s regulatory framework defining the laws and procedures that govern the collection, storage, processing, and disposal of biomedical waste in Nairobi County and recommend appropriate actions to counter the situation . The two areas of investigation consisted of determining the causes of occupational accidents and evaluating the attitude and knowledge of biomedical waste handlers in Nairobi County. Both, the qualitative and quantitative research paradigms were used in the study. A sample size of 168 participants from the target population of 1000 biomedical waste handlers was chosen with 160 questionnaires returned for statistical analysis. The study used a descriptive statistics approach to generate tables with the mean, standard error of the mean, t-distributions, percentages, and significance tests among other statistical measures to address the research objectives on the basis of the Petersen’s Accident/Incident and the human factors theories. On the causes of accidents, the results showed strong positive Skewness indicating problems with waste management practices, inadequate knowledge on waste classification at source, inadequate attention to rules and regulations governing the collection and handling of biomedical waste, inadequate training and awareness, poor enforcement of waste handling standards and policies, and inadequate knowledge on the classification and handling of biomedical waste. This revealed the nature of accidents to include pricks, contaminations, muscle tearing, scratches, being struck by falling objects and sustaining injuries due to falls. On knowledge and attitude of biomedical waste handlers, significant challenges were revealed showing that inadequate knowledge on safe waste handling methods with a significant number showing that their educational attainments barred them from comprehending the regulations and procedures for handling biomedical waste. A significance test at Kendall's tau coefficient statistic showed strong positive correlation between educational levels and managing biomedical waste. It was recommended that the Waste Management Authority designs a customized training program to address the problems facing biomedical waste handlers in Nairobi County. Keywords: Biomdedical waste, hazards, Accidents, Waste Management, injuries, pricks, Nairobi Count