Assessment of gestational diabetes mellitus knowledge, attitudes, and practices and associated factors among pregnant women at a district hospital in Coastal Kenya.

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is any degree of glucose intolerance first recognized during pregnancy. GDM awareness among pregnant women translates into GDM prevention and early diagnosis.

Objective: To establish the underlying factors influencing GDM Knowledge Attitude and Practices (KAP) among pregnant women at Kinango District Hospital.

Potential application of the haematology analyser XN-31 prototype for field malaria surveillance in Kenya.

Background: Simple and accurate diagnosis is a key component of malaria control programmes. Microscopy is the current gold standard, however it requires extensive training and the results largely rely on the skill of the microscopists. Malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) can be performed with minimal training and offer timely diagnosis, but results are not quantitative.

Snakebite victim profiles and treatment-seeking behaviors in two regions of Kenya: results from a health demographic surveillance system.

Introduction: Snakebites are a major cause of permanent injury and death among poor, rural populations in developing countries, including those in East Africa. This research characterizes snakebite incidence, risk factors, and subsequent health-seeking behaviors in two regions of Kenya using a mixed methods approach.

Methods: As a part of regular activities of a health demographic surveillance system, household-level survey on snakebite incidence was conducted in two areas of Kenya: Kwale along the Kenyan Coast and Mbita on Lake Victoria.

Environmental and Household-Based Spatial Risks for Tungiasis in an Endemic Area of Coastal Kenya.

Tungiasis is a cutaneous parasitosis caused by an embedded female sand flea. The distribution of cases can be spatially heterogeneous even in areas with similar risk profiles. This study assesses household and remotely sensed environmental factors that contribute to the geographic distribution of tungiasis cases in a rural area along the Southern Kenyan Coast.

Presence of dogs and proximity to a wildlife reserve increase household level risk of tungiasis in Kwale, Kenya.

Introduction: Tungiasis is a ectopic skin disease caused by some species of fleas in the Tunga genus, most notably T. penetrans. The disease afflicts poor and marginalized communities in developing countries.

Barriers to the Digitization of Health Information: A Qualitative and Quantitative Study in Kenya and Lao PDR Using a Cloud-Based Maternal and Child Registration System.

Digitalization of health information can assist patient information management and improve health services even in low middle-income countries. We have implemented a mother and child health registration system in the study areas of Kenya and Lao PDR to evaluate barriers to digitalization. We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 healthcare workers (HCWs) who used the system and analyzed it qualitatively with thematic framework analysis.

Selections, frameshift mutations, and copy number variation detected on the surf gene in the western Kenyan Plasmodium falciparum population.

Background: Plasmodium falciparum SURFIN is a putative ligand expressed on the merozoite and likely on the infected red blood cell, whose gene was suggested to be under directional selection in the eastern Kenyan population, but under balancing selection in the Thai population. To understand this difference, surf sequences of western Kenyan P. falciparum isolates were analysed.