Publications by authors named "Ndung'u M"

Article Synopsis
  • Research investigates the impact of child protective services (CPS) out-of-home care on HIV outcomes among women in Canada, revealing knowledge gaps in this area.
  • A longitudinal study over 5 years assessed self-reported ART use and viral load (VL) detectability, using statistical methods to track outcome trajectories.
  • Results show that women with a history of CPS care are twice as likely to have a detectable VL, suggesting that their poorer mental health mediates this relationship.
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Objectives: The community-based, longitudinal, Canadian HIV Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS) explored the experiences of women with HIV in Canada over the past decade. CHIWOS' high-impact publications document significant gaps in the provision of healthcare to women with HIV. We used concept mapping to analyse and present a summary of CHIWOS findings on women's experiences navigating these gaps.

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Article Synopsis
  • The Women-Centred HIV Care (WCHC) Model was created using data from a national study and focus groups to improve healthcare delivery for women living with HIV.* -
  • Two toolkits in English and French were developed for service providers and women with HIV, with extensive outreach through webinars and training sessions, reaching over 300 individuals.* -
  • The initiative showed positive outcomes, with a 29% increase in WCHC knowledge and high confidence in care abilities among participants, along with 7766 downloads of the toolkits by December 2023.*
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Introduction: Febrile neutropenia is an oncological emergency in children with cancer, associated with serious infections and complications. In low-resourced settings, death from infections in children with cancer is 20 times higher than in high-resourced treatment settings, thought to be related to delays in antibiotic administration and management. The barriers to effective management of fever episodes in children with cancer have not previously been described.

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Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an increasingly severe threat to global public health that requires action across different sectors. Selection of appropriate antimicrobials is an urgent challenge due to the emergence of drug resistance. In 2017, Kenya developed an AMR policy and National Action Plan to drive prevention and containment of AMR.

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Background And Purpose: Delivery of bad news or negative health information is a complex skill critical to the provision of patient care. While counseling models with this focus exist within other health care professions, their use in pharmacy education is lacking. The purpose of this study is to assess pharmacy students' ability to deliver bad news with the implementation of a counseling model titled SPIKES (Setting, Perception, Invitation, Knowledge, Emotions with Empathy, and Strategy/Summary).

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Background: The objective of this pilot study was to examine student engagement with weekly self-paced learning materials in a virtual therapeutics course, and how sub-factors in the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) may have influenced academic performance.

Methods: Students within a diabetes module of a therapeutics course were provided with weekly asynchronous optional self-directed learning activities. Student submissions, on-time rates, self-reported weekly study time, and exam performance were collected.

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Introduction: Cholera epidemic poses a global public health threat, heavily impacting the global economy and societies, with Africa and Asia particularly affected due to factors like; inadequate sanitation, contaminated water, and overcrowding. The associated high rates of morbidity and mortality strain productivity and healthcare costs while complicating control measures. Consequently, the World Health Organization's cholera control initiative and the Diarrhoeal Diseases Laboratory Network advocate for rapid responses to outbreaks and continuous environmental surveillance, since traditional cholera detection methods relying on phenotypic fingerprinting, although considered the gold standard, suffer from labour-intensiveness, time-consumption, and skill requirements.

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Locally available organic inputs to soil, solely or in combination with inorganic fertilizers, are used to reverse declining soil fertility and improve soil organic matter content (SOM) in smallholder farms of most Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries. Soil organic matter characterization can indicate soil organic input, carbon (C) sequestration potential, or even an authentication tool for soil C dynamics in C stocks accounting. This study determined the effects of the long-term application of selected integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) technologies on SOM functional group composition and maize yields.

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Women living with HIV (WLWH) face unique barriers and require specialized, integrated care that focuses on women's specific needs. We conducted a scoping review to examine factors important for a women-centred HIV care (WCHC) approach. We included published peer-reviewed articles which featured WCHC services as their central focus; included study populations of girls and WLWH aged 14 years of age or older; and contributed to the understanding of WCHC for WLWH.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The "Women-Centred HIV Care" (WCHC) Model was developed using the knowledge-to-action framework, resembling a house with trauma-aware care as the foundation and person-centred care as the first floor.
  • * The model integrates women’s health, mental health, and peer support, offering a flexible approach to care that can adapt to various settings and delivery methods to meet diverse needs.
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White matter (WM) disease is associated with disruption of the gliovascular unit, which involves breach of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). We quantified pericytes as components of the gliovascular unit and assessed their status in vascular and other common dementias. Immunohistochemical and immunofluorescent methods were developed to assess the distribution and quantification of pericytes connected to the frontal lobe WM capillaries.

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Host marking pheromones (HMPs) deposited by female fruit flies deter other females from overexploiting the same fruit for egg laying. Using a bioassay-guided approach, we identified the HMP of the Natal fruit fly species Ceratitis rosa as glutamic acid, 1, from the aqueous fecal matter extract of ovipositing females by liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS). Dual choice oviposition assays showed that both the fecal matter extract and 1 significantly reduced oviposition responses in conspecific females of C.

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Many insects mark their oviposition sites with a host marking pheromone (HMP) to deter other females from overexploiting these sites. Previous studies have identified and used HMPs to manage certain fruit fly species; however, few are known for African indigenous fruit flies. The HMP of the African fruit fly, Ceratitis cosyra, was identified as the ubiquitous plant and animal antioxidant tripeptide, glutathione (GSH).

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White matter hyperintensities as seen on brain T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging are associated with varying degrees of cognitive dysfunction in stroke, cerebral small vessel disease and dementia. The pathophysiological mechanisms within the white matter accounting for cognitive dysfunction remain unclear. With the hypothesis that gliovascular interactions are impaired in subjects with high burdens of white matter hyperintensities, we performed clinicopathological studies in post-stroke survivors, who had exhibited greater frontal white matter hyperintensities volumes that predicted shorter time to dementia onset.

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Previous studies on the legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata Fabricius (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), a serious pest of cowpea, Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. (Fabales: Fabaceae), in sub-Saharan Africa have focused on sex pheromones, but the role of the host plant on sexual behavior has not been explored.

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Insects are increasingly being recognized not only as a source of food to feed the ever growing world population but also as potential sources of new products and therapeutic agents, among which are sterols. In this study, we sought to profile sterols and their derivatives present in the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria, focusing on those with potential importance as dietary and therapeutic components for humans. Using coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), we analyzed and compared the quantities of sterols in the different sections of the gut and tissues of the locust.

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Background: Previous studies have extensively reported the deposition of amyloid β (Aβ) peptide with carboxyl- and amino-terminal heterogeneity in cortical and cerebrovascular deposits in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and in non-human primates except baboons.

Methods: We examined the immunocytochemical distribution of Aβ peptides and Aβ oligomers in brain tissue from three subspecies of 18- to 28-year-old baboons (Papio) and in other monkeys including the squirrel (Saimiri sciureus) and rhesus (Macaca mulatta) for comparison.

Results: A general preponderance of Aβ(42) in parenchymal deposits and many vascular deposits in all cortical lobes was evident in the baboons.

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Background: Substance use among college and university students predicts substance related problems in later life. Few studies on this phenomenon have been carried out in low income countries, and most focus on primary and secondary school students. This study therefore aimed to establish the prevalence and factors associated with drug use among university and college students in a low income country.

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Previously, we reported an interesting relationship between virulence and repellency of different isolates of the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae towards the termite Macrotermes michaelseni: the higher the virulence of a given isolate, the greater its repellency. In the present study, we compared the volatile profiles of two isolates, one that was more virulent (and repellent) and one that was less virulent (and repellent) to the termite. The prominent components of the two blends were characterized by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and authenticated by gas chromatography co-injections with synthetic standards.

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Field observations have demonstrated that gravid Anopheles gambiae Giles s.s. (Diptera: Culicidae) are selective in their choice of oviposition sites.

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Termites encounter a diverse array of potentially useful and harmful fungi in their subterranean habitats. These vary from symbiotic to harmful species with varying levels of virulence. How these hemiedaphic insects survive in habitats with infective fungi is not well understood.

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The crude methanol extracts of the root barks of Turraea wakefieldii and Turraea floribunda were found to show mosquito larvicidal activity against third-instar larvae of Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto. Four new limonoids comprising a vilasininoid 1 and three havanensinoids 2-4 were isolated from the chloroform fractions of the methanol extracts of T. wakefieldii and T.

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Five novel limonoids, 1-5, were isolated from the root bark of Turraea wakefieldii and were characterized as tecleaninoid derivatives. This is the first report of the natural occurrence of tecleanin-type limonoids with a five-membered-ring A-seco structure for which we propose the name neotecleanins. The relative stereochemical structures of compounds 1-5 were established on the basis of NMR spectroscopy.

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