Effect of health education on oral health-related quality of life among persons living with HIV at two comprehensive care centres in Kenya

Objective: To evaluate the effect of health education on quality of life of persons living with HIV/AIDS.Design: Quasi-Experimental study.Setting: Comprehensive Care Centres (CCC), at Kenyatta National Hospital and Mbagathi District Hospital.Subject: One hundred and ninety five persons living with HIV/AIDS attending CCC.Results: At baseline,48.2% of the participants had at least one oral health related attribute. There was a significant decrease in the prevalence of oral health related attributes among the cases but not the controls. A large effect size was observed in physical pain subscale among the cases after health education. Change in psychological discomfort psychological disability,handicap and functional subscales were significantly associated with change in gingival inflammation.Conclusion: Oral health education is a viable strategy in reducing oral health related attribute, leading to improved oral health related quality of life

Effects of urbanization on climate of Nairobi City

Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city, is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. There is necessity to investigate the effects of urbanization on the climate of the city. This study looked into the long-term urban modification of annual weather conditions by studying the relation between the weather elements and urbanization indicators. The results showed that Nairobi city is growing at a high rate as evidenced by a population growth of about 6.9% annually.The temperature was found to have been modified by urbanization such that there is a warming trend; the stations that were more urban recorded a high rate of temperature increase as compared to the less urban stations revealing the formation of an urban heat island. Rainfall trend was similarly found to be increasing with time; however, the change in humidity was found to be insignificant. It further revealed that some of the long term changes in climate over the city were due to changes in surface and atmospheric characteristics of the city such as surface roughness, smoke and destruction of vegetation cover, as a consequence of urbanization. The environmental implications such as urban surface temperature modification on human comfort are significant. It was suggested that in order to control these trends and to obtain more favourable and healthy climatic conditions, the acreage of green areas must be increased. Incorporation of the findings in the future planning of the city is hence recommended

High resolution mapping of trypanosomosis resistance loci Tir2 and Tir3 using F12 advanced intercross lines with major locus Tir1 fixed for the susceptible allele

Trypanosomosis is the most economically important disease constraint to livestock productivity in Africa. A number of trypanotolerant cattle breeds are found in West Africa, and identification of the genes conferring trypanotolerance could lead to effective means of genetic selection for trypanotolerance. In this context, high resolution mapping in mouse models are a promising approach to identifying the genes associated with trypanotolerance. In previous studies, using F2 C57BL/6J × A/J and C57BL/6J × BALB/cJ mouse resource populations, trypanotolerance QTL were mapped within a large genomic intervals of 20-40 cM to chromosomes MMU17, 5 and 1, and denoted Tir1, Tir2 and Tir3 respectively. Subsequently, using F6 C57BL/6J × A/J and C57BL/6J × BALB/cJ F6 advanced intercross lines (AIL), Tir1 was fine mapped to a confidence interval (CI) of less than 1 cM, while Tir2 and Tir3, were mapped within 5-12 cM. Tir1 represents the major trypanotolerance QTL

Understanding maize/beans intercropping yield distributions from water conservation measures in a hedged agroforestry system in semi-arid Laikipia District, Kenya

Cropping systems in semi-arid Laikipia district are more weather sensitive than those in medium to higher potential areas of Kenya. Water, and to a certain extent, wind are major climatic constraints. Agroforestry (AF) farms surrounded by Coleus barbatus hedges as live-fences are being introduced by demonstrations into this fragile environment, in which Grevillea robusta trees are combined with an intercrop of maize and beans. In this demonstration plot research with a six-year-old tree system, root pruning of trees and live-fences diminished competition with crops. When combined with mulching and minimum tillage as additional water conservation measures, this was successful for maize biomass and for low bean seed and biomass yields under very low rainfall conditions. Under ample rainfall, pruning remained useful for maize and both mulching and pruning for beans. Partitioning of assimilates among stover biomass, grain and cobs was found to occur in a ratio of close to 6:3:1. This implies that the photosynthates are proportioned such that 10% goes to build cob dry matter, 30% grain dry matter and 60% to the biomass. However, under unfavourable on-farm conditions the stover accumulated more biomass while other parts had very little. Although some farmers have adopted the use of AF, tree spacing in their farms had not taken care of necessary conditions for understory crops. This way, water conservation measures such as root pruning, mulching and minimum tillage could not yield the desired results on these farms, although pruning was observed to influence maize height and biomass weight. The objective of this article is to articulate methods that were used in water conservation for enhanced maize and beans intercrop yields in the semi-arid and arid areas of Kenya. The specific objectives included the role of root pruning of agroforestry trees, tillage modes and soil mulching in amelioration of intercrop environment

DIETARY PATTERNS AND DENTAL CARIES IN NURSERY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Objective: To determine the dietary patterns and the prevalence of dental caries amongnursery school children in Nairobi.Design: A cross-sectional study.Setting: Nursery schools in Nairobi, Kenya.Subjects: Three hundred and four nursery school-children ( 149 males and 155 females) aged3-5 years were assessed in 1997.Results: There was a high consumption of fruits. vegetables and milk on a daily basis. Therewasalsoa high consumption of snacks both at home and atsvhool. About 96% of the childrenhad been breastfed, while 41 % had been bottle-fed. The pre valence of dental caries was highat 63.5% and a mean decayed, missing and filled teeth ir dex (dmft) of 2.95, with the dcomponentcomprising 96% of the total dmft. Only 1.3% of the children had filled teeth.Increasing age was the most predictive factor in dental caries.Conclusion: The high consumption of refined foods and snac ks, as well as the high prevalenceof dental caries raises a strong public health concern. I1 is recommended that dietarycounselling and preventive oral health programmes shou d be initiated and the alreadyexisting ones strengthened and incorporated in primary healthcare programmes. There isalso need for policy makers to come up with guidelines on advertisements promotingcariogenic snacks

Simply obtained global radiation, soil temperature and soil moisture in an alley cropping system in semi-arid Kenya

Global radiation, soil temperature and soil moisture data were obtained from a 4-6 year old Cassia siamea/maize (CM) alley cropping (or hedgerow intercropping) system, at a semi-arid site at Machakos, Kenya, in the late eighties. With the growing need to explore and manage variations in agro-ecosystems these results deserve new attention. They quantify, in a simple but detailed manner, the influence of hedgerows on the microclimate of their intercrop and for comparison provide a sole maize (SM) control. Due to inhomogeneity of Cassia and maize, as well as limited budgets, the sampling methodology and the choice of appropriate equipment, including the sensors, demanded special attention. The diurnal patterns of soil temperatures at 7.5 cm depth represented well the shading patterns of the hedgerows. This can be developed into an operational auxiliary methodology of integrated shade quantification. With proper precautions, the developed sampling methodologies showed appropriately the time integrated values of the three microclimatic parameters with enough detail to understand yield differences between treatments and between rows. This approach may therefore be recommended for on-farm quantification of even greater spatial variability of parameters. The limitations of the selected methods are highlighted. Experiences with some alternative methods are also discussed