Climate Variability and Its Effects on Gender and Coping Strategies in Baringo County, Kenya

Climate variability has often been described as one of the most pressing environmental challenges. Our lifestyles, economy, health, income, livelihood and our social well-being are all affected by climate. This paper therefore, assessed climate variability, its effect of gender and coping strategies they adopt in Baringo County, Kenya. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in analyzing the data obtained for the study. Findings show that there is consisent decrease in rainfall and increase in temperature in recent times. Male gender dominates household decisions and roles such as land preparation, livestock keeping/feeding, pesticide application and fence construction in Baringo County, Kenya while the female gender dominates household roles such as water supply, domestic home chores and more of agricultural activities. Livestock migration was the major traditional coping strategy adopted in Baringo County. 56.8% of the respondents shows that cutting grasses for livestock was the major short term coping strategy adopted while Rainfall harvesting and storage (5.92%) was the least adopted in the studied area. Long term coping strategy to climate variability mostly adopted by the rural populace in is livestock migration (48.52%), it was also observed here that the least long term coping strategy adopted is finding alternative job as reputed by 4.44% of the respondents. Special intervention projects such as rain water harvesting techniques, drought resistant crops, short term crops etc, should be provided to rural populace/dwellers in Baringo County, and other parts of Kenya experiencing severe variability in climate, resulting to drought

MICRONUTRIENT ZINC DEFICIENCY AS A POSSIBLE CO-FACTOR IN THE TRANSMISSION AND PROGRESSION OF HIV/AIDS IN KENYA

Thirty-four HIV/AIDS patients at various stages of disease progression volunteered to manage their health using a nutritional supplement that contained several micronutrients that included a 15 mg daily dose of elemental zinc. This initial publication only focuses on trends in the serum zinc levels and the observed biochemical changes following intervention, considering the critical role this trace element plays in human immunity. At baseline and after 30 months of follow-up, the patients\' serum zinc levels were determined as was their clinical status. Four women who were found to be HIV negative at baseline and who had lost their husbands to HIV/AIDS, yet they had regularly had un-protected sex with them, had a mean serum zinc level of 116.2 + 32.7 mcg/100 ml. The serum zinc levels of asymptomatic, moderately symptomatic and severely symptomatic HIV/AIDS patients in the cohort reduced from baseline to post intervention levels of 92.5+12.1 to 78.0 + 8.2 mcg/100 ml (P = 0.056); 81.9+ 17.6 to 73.2 + 12.2 mcg/100 ml (P = 0.267) and 72.7+ 8.0 to 66.8 + 14.3 mcg/100 ml (P = 0.022), respectively, all being far below the mean serum zinc level of 120.0 + 22.0 mcg/100 ml reported in normal control subjects in Western literature. For all patients combined, the serum zinc levels fell from 79.2 + 14.5 to 71.0 + 13.0 mcg/100 ml (P= 0.016) notwithstanding that the patients had used zinc supplements at recommended daily allowances (RDA) over a period of 30 months. Notably, micronutrient zinc sufficiency plays a key role in promoting cell-mediated immunity and it is probably partly due to this reason that the high-risk women in this study, who also had comparably high serum zinc levels, remained negative for HIV antibodies despite repeated exposure to the virus. Thus, from this preliminary data that shows HIV/AIDS patients to be deficient in zinc in a manner consistent with their status of disease progression and considering that this trace element is recognized to possess antiviral and antibacterial properties, it is now apparently evident that zinc supplementation may play a key role in the fight against HIV/AIDS not only in Kenya but also in other African countries where this disease has reached epidemic proportions against a background of rampant malnutrition. Key Words: Micronutrient zinc, underutilized arsenal, combating, HIV/AIDS, Sub-Saharan Africa DEFICIENCE EN MICRONUTRIMENTS DE ZINC EN TANT QUE CO-FACTEUR POTENTIEL DE TRANSMISSION ET DE PROPAGATION DU VIH/SIDA AU KENYA NOTE DE SYNTHESE Trente-quatre patients du VIH/SIDA se trouvant à divers stades de progression de la maladie ont accepté de prendre en charge leur santé en utilisant un supplément alimentaire contenant plusieurs micro-substances nutritives dont 15 mg de dose quotidienne de zinc élémentaire. Ces informations initiales se portent seulement sur les tendances dans les niveaux de sérum de zinc et les changements biochimiques observés à la suite de l\'intervention, étant donné le rôle critique que jouent ces oligo-éléments dans l\'immunité humaine. A la situation de départ et après 30 mois de suivi, des tests ont été faits pour faire état des niveaux de sérum de zinc ainsi que de l\'état clinique des patients. Quatre femmes qui au départ ont un statut sérologique négatif par rapport au VIH et qui ont perdu leurs maris au VIH/SIDA, mais qui ont toutefois eu régulièrement des rapports sexuels non-protégés avec ces derniers, ont présenté un niveau de sérum de zinc moyen de 116,2 + 32,7 mcg/100 ml. Les niveaux de sérum de zinc chez la cohorte de malades asymptomatiques, modérément symptomatiques et sévèrement symptomatiques du VIH/SIDA ont diminué de la situation de base jusqu\'après les interventions de respectivement 92,5+12,1 à 78,0 + 8,2 mcg/100 ml (P = 0,056); 81,9 + 17,6 à 73,2 + 12,2 mcg/100ml (P=0,267) et 72,7 + 8,0 à 66,8 + 14,3 mcg/100ml (P=0,022). Tous ces niveaux sont de loin inférieurs au niveau moyen de sérum de zinc de 120,0 + 22,0 mcg/100ml de l\'échantillon témoin des sujets annoncés dans la littérature Occidentale. Pour l\'ensemble des malades, les niveaux de sérum de zinc ont chuté de 79,2 + 14,5 à 71,0 + 13,0 mcg/100 ml (P=0,016) bien que les malades aient pris pendant 30 mois la dose journalière recommandée de suppléments de zinc. La quantité suffisante de micro-nutriments de zinc joue un rôle essentiel dans la promotion de l\'immunité catalysée par la cellule. C\'est probablement à cause en partie de cette raison que les femmes à haut risque de cette étude, qui ont également des niveaux comparativement élevés de sérum de zinc, sont restées séronégatives aux anticorps VIH, malgré le contact répété avec le virus. Ainsi, si l\'on considère ces données préliminaires qui montrent des patients de VIH/SIDA, déficients en zinc d\'une manière que l\'on peut associer à leur statut par rapport à la progression de la maladie et si l\'on considère aussi que cet oligo-élément est reconnu pour ses propriétés antivirales et antibactériennes, il est maintenant évident que le supplément de zinc peut jouer un rôle important dans la lutte contre le VIH/SIDA non seulement au Kenya, mais aussi dans d\'autres pays africains où cette maladie a atteint des dimensions épidémiques dans un contexte de sous-alimentation généralisée. Mots-clés: Micronutriment de zinc; arsenal sous-exploité; lutte; VIH/SIDA; Afrique subsaharienne AJFAND Vol.4(2) 200

Empirical model for the assessment of climate change impacts on spatial pattern of water availability in Nigeria

Rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns due to global warming would affect sustainability in water resources in many regions. This change would impact several sectors, particularly the agricultural and water resources. The major objective of the present study is to model the impacts of climate change on spatial variability in water sustainability of Nigeria. Gauge based gridded rainfall data of global precipitation climatology centre (GPCC) and temperature data of climate research unit (CRU) for the period 1901–2010 and total water storage (TWS) anomaly data of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) for the period 2002–2016 were used for this purpose. The concept of reliability-resiliency-vulnerability was used for the assessment of sustainability in water resources. Machine learning models were used for the development of empirical models for the simulation of TWS from GPCC rainfall and CRU temperature. Finally, the multi-model ensemble mean projections of rainfall and temperature of four GCMs namely MRI-CGCM3, HadGEM2-ES, CSIRO-Mk3-6-0 and CESM1-CAM5 were used in the model for the assessment of climate change impact on water sustainability. The results revealed the declination of TWS in Nigeria up to -12 m during the rainy periods in some parts. Spatial assessment of the changes in TWS for the future shows the northeast, southeast and south-south parts would mostly experience decreases in TWS. Water sustainability will be low in these areas and some other parts of the country for the future