Globally, public health measures like face masks, hand hygiene and maintaining social distancing have been implemented to delay and reduce local transmission of COVID-19. To date there is emerging evidence to provide effectiveness and compliance to intervention measures on COVID-19 due to rapid spread of the disease. We synthesized evidence of community interventions and innovative practices to mitigate COVID-19 as well as previous respiratory outbreak infections which may share some aspects of transmission dynamics with COVID-19. In the study, we systematically searched the literature on community interventions to mitigate COVID-19, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), H1N1 Influenza and MERS (middle east respiratory syndrome) epidemics in PubMed, Google Scholar, World Health Organization (WHO), MEDRXIV and Google from their inception until May 30, 2020 for up-to-date published and grey resources. We screened records, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias in duplicates. We rated the certainty of evidence according to Cochrane methods and the GRADE approach. This study is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020183064). Of 41,138 papers found, 17 studies met the inclusion criteria in various settings in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). One of the papers from LMICs originated from Africa (Madagascar) with the rest from Asia 9 (China 5, Bangladesh 2, Thailand 2); South America 5 (Mexico 3, Peru 2) and Europe 2 (Serbia and Romania). Following five studies on the use of face masks, the risk of contracting SARS and Influenza was reduced OR 0.78 and 95% CI = 0.36–1.67. Equally, six studies on hand hygiene practices reported a reduced risk of contracting SARS and Influenza OR 0.95 and 95% CI = 0.83–1.08. Further two studies that looked at combined use of face masks and hand hygiene interventions showed the effectiveness in controlling the transmission of influenza OR 0.94 and 95% CI = 0.58–1.54. Nine studies on social distancing intervention demonstrated the importance of physical distance through closure of learning institutions on the transmission dynamics of disease. The evidence confirms the use of face masks, good hand hygiene and social distancing as community interventions are effective to control the spread of SARS and influenza in LMICs. However, the effectiveness of community interventions in LMICs should be informed by adherence of the mitigation measures and contextual factors taking into account the best practices. The study has shown gaps in adherence/compliance of the interventions, hence a need for robust intervention studies to better inform the evidence on compliance of the interventions. Nevertheless, this rapid review of currently best available evidence might inform interim guidance on similar respiratory infectious diseases like Covid-19 in Kenya and similar LMIC context.

Keywords: inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, sequential filtration, medicinal plants, 15 trace elements, hot water extraction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64

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Athi River bentonite clay was activated using sulphuric acid at various acid concentrations, clayacid ratio, temperature and contact times. Optimization was based on palm oil bleaching performance. The chemical compositions of the raw clay and clay activated at different acid concentrations were analysed to investigate the extent of cation dissolution and exchange. From the results, the clay was classified as calcium bentonite. Both cation exchange capacity (CEC) and the apparent bulk density were found to decrease with increase in acid concentration. When palm oil was bleached at 90°C for 30 minutes using1% and 4% clay activated with 2M sulphuric acid , the bleaching performances obtained were 94.5 and 98% respectively. These results compared well with those of a commercial bleaching clay which was used as standard. The equilibrium data was analysed using Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherms and the former was found to provide a better fit for the data. The calculated heat of adsorption indicated that palm oil bleaching by the activated clay was an exothermic reaction and a physico-chemical process. Sulphuric acid activation was found to be an effective method of improving adsorption performance of Athi River bentonite clay and the activated product is a viable alternative to imported commercial bleaching earth.

This study is focusing on a novel approach to screen a large number of medicinal plants from Kenya regarding their contents and availability of selected metals potentially relevant for treatment of diabetes patients. For this purpose, total levels of zinc, chromium, manganese, and copper were determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry as well as BCR sequential extraction to fractionate the elemental species in anti-diabetic medicinal plants collected from five natural locations in two sub counties in Nyamira County, Kenya. Solanum mauense had the highest zinc level of 123.0 ± 3.1 mg/kg while Warburgia ugandensis had the lowest level of 13.9 ± 0.4 mg/kg. The highest level of copper was in Bidens pilosa (29.0 ± 0.6 mg/kg) while the lowest was in Aloe vera (3.0 ± 0.1 mg/kg). Croton macrostachyus had the highest manganese level of 1630 ± 40 mg/kg while Clerodendrum myricoides had the lowest (80.2 ± 1.2 mg/kg). The highest level of chromium was in Solanum mauense (3.20 ± 0.06 mg/kg) while the lowest (0.04 ± 0.01 mg/kg) were in Clerodendrum myricoides and Warburgia ugandesis among the medicinal plants from Nyamira and Borabu, respectively. The levels of the elements were statistically different from that of other elements while the level of a given element was not statistically different in the medicinal plants from the different sub counties. Sequential extraction was performed to determine the solubility and thus estimate the bioavailability of the four investigated essential and potentially therapeutically relevant metals. The results showed that the easily bioavailable fraction (EBF) of chromium, manganese, zinc, and copper ranged from 6.7 to 13.8%, 4.1 to 10%, 2.4 to 10.2%, and 3.2 to 12.0% while the potentially bioavailable fraction (PBF) ranged from 50.1 to 67.6%, 32.2 to 48.7%, 23.0 to 41.1%, and 34.6 to 53.1%, respectively. Bidens pilosa, Croton macrostachyus, Ultrica dioica, and Solanum mauense medicinal plants used to treat diabetes by 80 % of the herbalists in Nyamira County were found to be rich in chromium, manganese, copper, and zinc. The EBF of zinc, manganese, and chromium constitutes adequate amounts recommended for daily intake not exceeding the ADI and delivered a low percentage of RDA when estimating daily intake during therapy from typically applied doses. The plants did not show any significant differences at p < 0.05 in terms of concentrations of the elements between the two study areas though the levels of the different elements were statistically significant. Another major observation was that high total levels of the metals in a given plant did not necessarily translate to high bioavailable levels, and hence the need to determine bioavailable form as it is the one accessible to the patient.

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In Kenya, foliar fertilizers have not found use in tea production despite their numerous advantages as exhibited in other crops. A fertilizer trial test was established in three sites of the major tea growing regions, with 36 plots per site to determine the effects of foliar fertilizer application on tea quality. Two foliar fertilizers were tested; foliar fertilizer 1 (FF1) and foliar fertilizer 2 (FF2), with a positive control of soil fertilizer (SF) and a blank. Two leaves and a bud tea samples were collected every two weeks after each foliar fertilizer application. These were then analyzed for tea quality (total polyphenols, TP), nutrient residues for the different clones and geographical locations. The TP contents for clone TRFK 31/8 were as follows: FF1 = 17.8%, FF2 = 17.9%, SF = 16.56% and Zero = 17.4%. Tukey-Kramer pair wise comparison test results between the foliar fertilizers and SF showed that the FF1 (HSD = 4.78) and FF2 (HSD = 5.27) fertilizers had significantly (P < 0.05) higher levels of TP content as compared to control SF fertilizer. Nutrients analyzed had average means as follows: N = 4% -5%, P = 0.25% -0.28%, K = 1.35% -1.69%, Ca = 0.3 -0.5 ppm, Mg = 0.19 -0.27 ppm, Mn = 0.05 -0.13 ppm, Zn = 25 -40.5 ppm, Cu = 11 -17 ppm and Fe = 72 -122 ppm. The nutrient residue levels had non-significantly statistical differences at P < 0.05 level between pairs of zero applied plots and the FF1, FF2 and SF applied plots respectively. It was concluded that the foliar fertilizers increased the TP content in tested tea samples and the nutrients analyzed were all within the dietary reference intake (DRI) levels for SF, FF1 and FF2. Overall, the foliar fertilizer increased the quality of the tested tea samples.