Publications by authors named "Samuel Majalija"

Background: Poultry production in Uganda is growing at a fast rate due to increasing demand, notwithstanding, poor husbandry practices, and diseases, prompting farmers to rear healthy productive flocks with antimicrobials. The study evaluated the knowledge and practices as regards the use of antibiotics among poultry farmers in Masindi district and determined the antibiotic susceptibility profiles of strains from chickens.

Methods: A cross-sectional study using a closed-end questionnaire was conducted in 140 selected small-scale commercial poultry farms in Masindi district between June and December, 2020.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background   Although rabies in dog bite patients is preventable through timely initiation of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), a number of barriers to achieving PEP exist. This study investigated the delays to initiation of PEP among dog bite patients in the emergency departments of two PEP centers in Uganda. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among dog-bite patients that presented to two selected rabies PEP centers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Post-exposure treatment for dog bites in humans aims at alleviating the risk of rabies and promoting wound healing. Wound healing may be complicated by bacteria. This study identified the different bacteria and their antibiotic susceptibilities in infected dog bite wounds (DBWs) in Uganda.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dog-mediated rabies is on the increase in Uganda despite the availability of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). PEP procedures are expounded in the Uganda Clinical Guidelines (UCG) of 2016. We assessed adherence by health workers to UCG while managing dog bites in two PEP centers and obtained insights into motivations of their practices.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreaks significantly affect the health and livelihoods of communities, particularly impacting the pig value chain and income security for pig farmers in agro-pastoral regions like Luweero, Uganda.
  • A study involving 229 respondents revealed high awareness of EVD, with 95.6% recalling the last outbreak and 38.7% of pig farmers believing EVD influenced the demand and sale of pigs.
  • The outbreak led to a notable decline in pig sales, purchases by traders, and slaughter rates at butcher shops, highlighting the economic consequences of EVD on local pig farming.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In rabies endemic areas, appropriate management of dog bites is critical in human rabies prevention. Victims must immediately wash bite wound for 15 minutes with water, soap, and a disinfectant before seeking medical care. This study investigated the epidemiology of dog bites and the determinants of compliance to these pre-clinical guidelines requirements among dog bite victims from high rabies-burden areas of Wakiso and Kampala, Uganda.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Inorganic contamination of food products is associated with adverse health effects, however, information on grasshoppers in Africa is sparse. The objective of the study was to determine antioxidant, heavy metal and food safety status of edible grasshoppers of Uganda.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in central and southwestern Uganda, in which a questionnaire was administered to grasshopper harvesters.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The burden of brucellosis among smallholder farmers is poorly-documented in Uganda. The disease burden is likely to be high, given the high levels of endemicity, lots of exposures and due to lack of control measures. In order to designate appropriate control measures, the magnitude and risk factors for brucellosis need to be known.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease usually acquired through direct contact with the infected animals and consumption of contaminated milk and meat products. In humans Brucellosis presents similar signs with other febrile diseases like Malaria, typhoid and other febrile conditions. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of Brucella abortus among patients with fever but were negative for Malaria.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Antimicrobial resistance is an emerging problem in both humans and animals due to misuse and excessive use of drugs. Resistance in commensal isolates can be used to predict emergence of resistance in other gut microflora. The aim of this study is to determine the phylogenetic groups and antimicrobial resistance patterns of from healthy chickens in Uganda.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Many factors, including lack of knowledge, influence diagnosis and reporting of disease in Sub-Saharan Africa. Health Care workers (HCWs) are in constant interaction with communities and play an important role in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases, including zoonoses. We determined knowledge of HCWs regarding cause, vector, transmission, diagnosis and clinical symptoms of five zoonotic diseases: anthrax, brucellosis, rabies as well as Ebola and marburg haemorrhagic fevers in endemic western Uganda.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Brucellosis is a worldwide and zoonotic disease often sadly misdiagnosed in endemic areas. Challenges of availability and accessibility of diagnostic tools are common in resource constrained populations where the most vulnerable are found, surveillance and diagnosis are limited too.

Methods: A cross-sectional study using a simple two stage cluster sampling method was conducted to measure short evolution brucellosis burden among cattle keeping households that are one of the highest risk populations to be exposed to Brucella infection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Sporadic outbreaks with varying clinical presentations have been on the rise in various parts of Uganda. The sources of outbreaks and factors underlying the different clinical manifestation are curtailed by paucity of information on genotypes and the associated virulence genes. This study reports molecular diversity of and their genetic virulence profiles among human and animal isolates.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Brucellosis remains a neglected zoonotic disease among agro-pastoral communities where unprocessed milk and milk products are consumed. A cross-sectional study was carried out in Kiboga district to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors associated with human brucellosis in communities where livestock rearing in a common practice.

Methods: A total of 235 participants were involved in the study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: A cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of Mycobacterium bovis skin positivity and associated risk factors in cattle in western Uganda.

Methods: Herds were selected using multi-stage cluster sampling. The comparative cervical intradermal tuberculin test (CCT) was used to determine cattle tuberculosis status using US Department of Agriculture protocols.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The presence of bluetongue virus (BTV) in indigenous goats from the Karamoja region of northern Uganda was investigated. A total of 300 goats were sampled (serum and whole blood) from five districts within the Karamoja region. The samples were analysed for the presence of bluetongue (BT) antibodies using a commercial Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and for the presence of BTV viral RNA by real-time Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), because BTV is an RNA virus.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (Salmonella Typhi) causes an estimated 22 million typhoid fever cases and 216 000 deaths annually worldwide. In Africa, the lack of laboratory diagnostic capacity limits the ability to recognize endemic typhoid fever and to detect outbreaks. We report a large laboratory-confirmed outbreak of typhoid fever in Uganda with a high proportion of intestinal perforations (IPs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains from cattle and diarrheic children in a pastoralist community in Uganda were investigated. The STEC strains belonged to a variety of different serogroups, and 70% of the strains were positive for the intimin gene, eae. STEC strains from two of the children were closely related to bovine strains.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF