East African Journal Of Science, Technology and Innovation
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The Prevalence of Hypertension and its association with HIV related factors in HIV patients on ART, Bagamoyo district, Eastern Tanzania: Hypertension in adult HIV patients on ART
No full textAbstract
Background
Individuals living with HIV/AIDS have a higher risk of cardiovascular complications, including hypertension..We, therefore, assess the prevalence of hypertension and its association to HIV related factors in HIV patients on ART, in Bagamoyo district eastern Tanzania.
Methods
This was a cross-sectional study involving adult HIV-infected individuals on ART, consecutively enrolled from two selected care and treatment clinics, between March and May 2019. Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure ? 140mmHg, diastolic blood pressure ?90mmHg or being on-ant hypertensive medication regardless of blood pressure measurement on the day of enrolment. Logistic regression was used for assessing the association.
Results
We investigated 328 adult HIV patients on ART, 64.6% were female, 92.68% on non-protease inhibitors medication and 14% had a history of TB in the past 5 years. The overall prevalence of hypertension in adult HIV patients on ART was 29.3% and it was significant and positively associated with increasing age, obesity, family history of hypertension, current TB/HIV co-infection, and non-protease inhibitors. Both duration since HIV diagnosed, recent CD4+cell count and history of TB in the past 5 years were not associated with increasing odds of having hypertension.
Conclusion
The prevalence of hypertension in HIV patients on ART was higher and it was associated with increasing age, obesity and exposure to non-protease inhibitors. Regular monitoring of blood pressure, anthropometrics, and ART drug toxicity are crucial among HIV patients attending CTC.
 
An Adoption model for a big data analytics system for improving healthcare services in Burundi’s public hospitals
Get PDFOne of the key responsibilities of a government is to provide efficient health care services that are better and affordable. In Burundi, patients’ health records are collected using handwritten forms and stored in filing cabinets. Evidence’ based research and practice shows that adoption of a Big Data Analytics (BDA) system can significantly improve health care services. Unfortunately, BDA adoption models and automated assessment tools are lacking not to mention the dearth caused by researchers’ predominant focus on the technical aspects. Therefore, the aim of this study was to propose a BDA system adoption model for improving health care services in Burundi’s public hospitals. This was achieved through a mixed research method a large part being qualitative. The factors that influence the adoption of BDA in public healthcare services using the Technology Organization Environment (TOE) adoption theory through a desk research. Semi-structured interviews, observations and document reviews were used to investigate the methods used to collect, store and analyze data in Public hospitals of Burundi. Afterwards, a web based automated Adoption Readiness Assessment Tool (ARAT) was developed then used to assess the readiness of Burundi in adopting a BDA system in its public hospitals. The assessment results showed that the country has adequate telecommunication infrastructures and has started using information systems like OpenClinic and District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2) in some public hospitals, the government has set up policies for e-Health and the level of awareness is high as well among health workers. But there are improvements to be made in order to assure that the adoption is successful. Lastly, a tailored adoption model was proposed describing what should be done and how in order to assure a successful adoption of a BDA in public hospitals.
 
The interplay between traders, products, and customers in fresh produce business establishment and operation in Nairobi City Park market, Kenya
No full textoai:ojs2.eajsti.org:article/17The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence and motivate people to engage in fresh produce trading at the Nairobi City Park market. Three objectives guided this study, thus: (i) To determine the relationship between trader socio-economic factors and the decision to trade at the City Park market (ii) To establish the fresh produce related factors that motivate traders to operate at the City Park market (iii) To find out the customer related factors that motivate traders to sell their produce at the City Park market. This study was based on the central place theory of retail outlet location. A case study involving key informant interviews and questionnaires was done. Data were obtained from two key informants, 119 traders, and 20 customers. Systematic sampling was used to select traders, snowball sampling to select consumers and purposive sampling to select key informants. Youth constituted 52.5% of the traders, which should motivate the government to invest in youth agribusinesses. Important reasons for establishing businesses at City Park were space availability (27.2%), security (18.5%) and proximity to customers (16.3%). Significant correlations (P ? 0.1) included those between number of employees and number of repeat customers (r = 0.533). Half of the traders who used various ways to attract customers also employed a shop assistant (?2 = 6.43, P = 0.011). Policymakers can prioritise creation of more market space, provide security and improve transport infrastructure. Traders value high net-worth customers willing to pay a premium for high quality produce. Customers value diversity and quality of produce, and secure trading environment. The government should formulate policies that encourage traders to establish long term businesses. Fresh produce quality standards should be clearly defined and legalized. Market environments should be improved through construction of well-designed buildings with amenities utilities, and security
A Comparative study of the Sero-prevalence of Peste Des Petits Ruminants Virus among Districts of Different Agro-Ecological Zones in Tanzania
Get PDFPeste des petits Ruminants (PPR), a disease affecting sheep and goats, was confirmed in Tanzania in the year 2018. Since then the disease has continued to spread into different districts, causing significant socio-economic losses to livestock keepers. This study aimed at determining the sero-prevalence of PPR in 32 districts from the coastal, semi-arid and plateau ecological zones, respectively. Sera samples were collected from sheep and goats, and analysed by competitive Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (c-ELISA). Findings indicated that six (18.8%) districts had very high PPR sero-prevalence of which four (66.7%; Chamwino, Kondoa, Mvomero and Kilosa) belong to the semi-arid ecological zone and two (33.3%; Bagamoyo and Mkuranga) to the coastal ecological zone. Three districts (9.4%) had high PPR sero-prevalence, all from the semi-arid ecological zone. Twelve districts had low PPR sero-prevalence of which two (16.7%) were from semi-arid, one (8.3%) from coastal and nine (75.0%) from plateau ecological zones. A zero PPR sero-prevalence was recorded in three districts and eight districts from semi-arid and plateau ecological zones, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in sero-positivity between the different ecological zones, ?2 (2) = 9.121, p = 0.010, with a mean rank sero-positivity of 24.7% for coastal zone, 12.0% for plateau and 20.8% for semi-arid zone. Post hoc pairwise comparison with Bonferroni correction for multiple tests showed a statistically significant difference between plateau and semi-arid zones (p = 0.032). Although the coastal zone had a higher mean rank positivity than the plateau zone, the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.083). The study suggests a zonal predisposition of PPR sero-prevalence with districts in the semi-arid and coastal zones having significantly higher values compared to those in the plateau ecological zones. Efforts for control of the disease need to concentrate in those two high risk ecological zones
Evaluation of Dairy Cattle Productivity in Smallholder Farms in Nyeri County, Kenya
Get PDFDairy cattle production contributes approximately 4.5% of the Kenyan National Gross Domestic Product, creates jobs along the value chain and plays a key role in food security. However, average milk yield per cow is still low under smallholder dairy production system despite concerted efforts to improve productivity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the productivity of smallholder dairy farms in 2 sub-counties of Nyeri County. A semi structured questionnaire was administered to collect data on feed resources and feeding systems, breeds and breeding systems, calf management, age at first service (AFS), age at first calving (AFC), calving interval (CI), milk yield (MY) and lactation length (LL) in smallholder dairy farms. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The dominant feed resources and feeding system were roughages (mostly Napier grass), concentrates and mineral supplements (87.2%) and stall feeding (74.2%). Majority of the farmers kept Friesians (82.2%) with (94.5%) using artificial insemination. Most of the farmers (83.5%) fed 2-4 litres of colostrum to the calves and the method of feeding was majorly bucket feeding (93.0%). High proportion of farmers (97.7%) fed the colostrum from 0-6 hours after calving and (59.6%) weaned calves at 3 months. The AFS was mainly 18-20 months and above, while the mean AFC, CI, and LL were 28.7±2.84, 15.2±5.11 and 10.0±4.90 months, respectively. The mean milk yield was 10.7±5.85 litres/cow/day. The main challenges to dairy cattle production were feed shortages (30.6%), low farmgate milk prices (28.3%) and high cost of concentrate feeds (17.8%). It was concluded that performance of dairy cattle in the study area was poor attributed mostly to feed shortages and low milk prices. To improve productivity, feed availability and cost together with farmgate price of milk should be addressed
Dynamics of governance in management of water resources; A case of Rwamuthambi sub catchment, Kenya
No full textIntegrated water resource management in sub-catchment areas is imminent in Kenya since the review of Water Act in 2002. Subsequently, this research analyzed the water resources governance dynamics of Rwamuthambi sub-catchment and made key recommendations for sustainability. An exploratory descriptive design was adopted. Data was collected through 203 questionnaires, 15 key informant interviews, semi structured interviews and observations. Spearman’s rank correlation (R), Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (W), Likert scale and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. 32% of the local community respondents ranked public participation as most effective in wetland conservation while 33% indicated that the WRUAs improved wetland sustainability through civic education and sensitization. The results revealed that stakeholder sensitization on sub-catchment conservation was the least important while public participation (W= 0.1, p< 0.05) was the most important consideration. It also emerged that pre-WRUA enforcement strategies were effective. In addition, there was a strong negative correlation between poor enforcement of policies and poor institutional capacity (R (23) = -0.77, p= 0.03) in sub-catchment activities. Therefore, there is a need to promote land owners’ participation and technical and financial capacity building for WRUA committee members. The study recommends domestication of policies to address intrinsic sub-catchment matters and adoption of pre-WRUA era conservation strategies of enforcement as ways to promote sustainability through governance
An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants commonly traded in Kajiado, Narok and Nairobi counties, Kenya: Medicinal Plant Species Traded in Kenya
No full textOver eighty percent of the world population depend on traditional medicine for their basic health care needs. A study was carried out in three counties in Kenya (Kajiado, Narok and Nairobi) to document the common plant species traded as medicinal or herbal remedies. Structured interviews and questionnaire were administered to herbalists with prior informed consent, who were willing to disclose information on the source, plant type and parts of the herbal medicine they were selling and ailments treated. The folk or common names were recorded and later translated to scientific names using para-taxonomists and previous published data. Majority of the herbalists interviewed were between the ages of 40-59 years and comprised of mostly women (54%). The investigations revealed that eighty-six (86) plant species were traded as medicinal plants out of which 51% were commonly traded across the three counties. The study further revealed that the most traded plant parts were stem, bark and roots which could pose a threat to conservation of the species due to complete or partial destruction of the trees during harvesting. Aloe species, Prunus africana and Osyris lanceolata were highly traded an indication of their preference by local inhabitants to treat particular ailments. The generated list of medicinal plants species will form baseline data that could be used to generate a comprehensive list of all plant species traded as herbal medicine in Kenya. The commonly traded plants can also be included in pharmacological studies which may lead to development of new and potential drugs
Livestock disease surveillance through the use Smart Phone Application in Isiolo County, Kenya
Get PDFThe specific goal of this study was to enhance disease surveillance through the community disease reporters (CDRs) on animal health incidents in Isiolo County of Kenya. The disease surveillance was conducted from 10th February 2017 to 22nd November 2018 covering 8 wards from all the three Sub-Counties of Isiolo County namely Isiolo, Garbatulla and Merti. The surveillance involved the use of web-based mobile phones application to upload and transmit disease cases, pictures and GPS locations to the Country Veterinary Department. Purposive and convenience sampling were used to select the households due to vastness and mobility of the pastoralists. A total of 194 households were selected for the study. The major findings were; 80% men and 20% women participated as household heads. A total of 283 reports were collected and uploaded by 18 CDRs from the 194 households. 17 CDRs (94.4%) were able to upload the data on the same day on which it was collected, 7 CDRs uploaded the data one day after it was collected, 8 CDRs (44.4%) uploaded the data within 2-6 days after collection with the same number of CDRs taking 15-31 days. For reported cases, cattle (67%), camels (72%), sheep (71%) and donkeys (90%) as well as poultry (33.3%) were attended to by the Veterinary Department. Overall, 60% (164/283) of all the livestock disease cases reported were followed or seen by the Veterinary Department. Of the diseases reported, Isiolo sub-county reported more cases in goats, cattle and poultry, while Garbatulla sub-county recorded the highest number of cases in camels and sheep. In all the three sub-counties, the most reported livestock disease cases were of goats. Based on the findings above, CDRs can detect and transmit real-time to near-real time livestock diseases information using web-based smartphone applications to help veterinary services to analyse and respond
Temporal Variations in Rainfall and Temperature and their Effects on the River Discharge in the Mara River Basin
Get PDFThe Mara River basin is one of the important transboundary resources in Eastern Africa that not only serve Kenya and Tanzania where it is located as one of the waterheads but also serve the lower countries of Sudan and Egypt. Variations in weather conditions, especially rainfall and temperature in the basin have impacts beyond the basin. The environmental processes that relate to variation in weather conditions include river flow regimes, vegetation cover, agro-calendar and wildlife. This paper looked at how variations in rainfall and temperature affect the river discharge in the Mara basin in order to determine the nature of rainfall and temperature variations in relation to river discharge in the basin. Observed long-term daily rainfall, temperature and river discharge covering 1983 – 2014 period, are used in time series analyses to measure periodicity and trend in rainfall, temperature and river discharge. The relationship between river discharge and the weather elements is determined using linear correlation analysis and multiple regression procedures at ? = 0.05. The results of the data analysis reveal that, the long-term variations in temperature, rainfall and river discharge are such that temperatures are tending toward increase while rainfall and river discharge are tending towards decline. Further, variations in rainfall and temperature conditions indicate un-seasonality in the timing and duration of monthly variations. The variations in rainfall, temperature and discharge series are statistically not significant (Mann Kendall trend test). The relationship between variations in rainfall and temperature with river discharge is that rainfall has stronger linear correlation with river discharge than temperature and therefore declining trends in rainfall are causing reduction in river discharge in the Mara basin. Measures should, therefore, be taken to reduce activities in the basin that are likely to impact on rainfall and temperature such as deforestation and encroachment on the water towers
Effects of agricultural intensification practices on smallholder farmers’ livelihood outcomes in Kenyan hotspots of Climate Change
Get PDFDeveloping countries, Kenya included are mostly affected by food shortage and poverty as a result of high dependence on agriculture constrained by climate variability, declining land sizes, and low agricultural technologies. Agricultural intensification is key in solving these problems to ensure increased farm output per unit land area. This study analyzed the role of agricultural intensification on smallholders’ poverty and food security status. The study is based on data collected from a sample of 320 smallholder households from two Sub-counties of Kenya, Makueni, and Nyando. Principle Component Analysis (PCA) was first used to group agricultural intensification practices into clusters. The Multivariate Tobit results indicated that age of the household head, household size, and proportion of land cultivated, a number of trainings, group diversity, location, and level of agricultural intensification significantly influenced households’ food security status during the food secured and food insecure months as well as their poverty status. The study recommended the need for smallholder farmers to form and join many groups that promote social networks thus reduce information asymmetry and improves their bargaining and borrowing power. It also suggested the need for policy geared towards training and extension which is generation-specific that can easily be incorporated by both the old and the young farmers. Through these, there will be an increase in the level of agricultural intensification used by smallholder farmers which successfully will lead to improvement of food security and reduction of poverty