COVID-19 and its prevention in internally displaced person (IDP) camps in Somalia: impact on livelihood, food security and mental health

Background Somalia has over 2.6 million internally displaced people (IDP) that depend on daily wages and humanitarian assistance for their livelihoods. This study investigated the impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods, food security and mental health of Somalia’s IDPs. Methods A questionnaire was conducted with “breadwinners” (n = 585) residing in 15 randomly selected IDP camps. Mental health was assessed using the 5-item World Health Organization Wellbeing Index (WHO-5) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Multivariable regression was used to explore the effect of depressive symptoms on soap use and ability to pay for food/medicine/rent. Results Knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms, transmission and prevention was relatively high, however only 55% reported using soap for hand washing. Around one third perceived that prohibition of public gatherings had negatively impacted weekly earnings. Participants reported difficulty buying food (85%), medicine (82%) and paying rent (51%) because of COVID-19. The majority were assessed as having low wellbeing and high depressive symptoms (mean WHO-5 = 44.2/100; mean PHQ-9 = 18.6/27), with most (74%) indicating that they felt worse than before the pandemic. Compared to people with low depressive symptoms, people with high depressive symptoms were less likely to use soap (aOR = 0.3, 95% CI = 0.2, 0.7; P < 0.001) and more likely to report difficulty buying food (aOR = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.1, 4.3; P = 0.02). Conclusion COVID-19 and associated restrictions have negatively impacted Somalia’s internally displaced population. Livelihood and mental health support is urgently needed in the recovery phase of the pandemic and should be factored into future pandemic planning

Theileria parva infection seroprevalence and associated risk factors in cattle in Machakos County, Kenya

The principle objective of this study was to estimate the infection seroprevalence and identify risk factors associated with Theileria parva infection in cattle on smallholder farms in Machakos County, Kenya. A total of 127 farms were selected by a proportional allocation approach based on the number of farms in four divisions in the county previously selected by stratified random sampling method. Subsequently, a total sample of 421 individual animals was randomly selected from the farms. Information on animal and relevant individual farm management practices was gathered using a standardized questionnaire. Prevalence of serum antibodies was determined using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Multivariable logistic models incorporating random effects at the farm level evaluated the association between the presence of T. parva antibodies and the identified risk variables. The overall estimation of T. parva antibodies in the county was 40.9 % (95 % confidence interval of 36.1, 45.7 %). Seroprevalence to T. parva was significantly associated with animal age, vector tick infestation in the animal, tick control frequency, and administrative division. Further analyses suggested a confounding relationship between administrative division and both breed and grazing system and the T. parva seropositivity. Random effects model yielded intra-farm correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.18. The inclusion of farm random effect provided a substantially better fit than the standard logistic regression (P = 0.032). The results demonstrate substantial variability in the T. parva infection prevalence within all categories of the cattle population of Machakos County of Kenya, where East Coast fever is endemic