No abstract

The growing demand for donated whole blood and blood products to save lives has both health benefits and health risks for blood recipients at the same time. Dengue virus, a re-emerging viral disease poses a threat to blood safety, and it has spread to over 128 countries in the world. Several studies have documented transfusion-transmitted (TT) dengue, with the first cases being reported in China in 2002 and Singapore in 2008. To understand the magnitude and broader picture of the dengue virus and blood safety, we conducted a mini-review of published literature from the Scopus database. The review focused on the number of publications related to the dengue virus among blood donors. Using keywords ‘Dengue virus’ AND ‘Blood safety’, ‘ Dengue virus’ AND ‘Blood donors’ and ‘Emerging infectious diseases’ AND “Blood safety” were used to extract data from the Scopus database which was downloaded as a CSV Excel file covering a period 2004 to 2021. This was followed by a data-cleaning exercise and a descriptive analysis to generate the frequency of the number of publications. Most studies, as can be seen in the review, were concentrated in tropical regions of the world. Globally, South America and the Asian regions had the largest number of publications; while at the country level, Brazil and India had the highest number. More research output was witnessed during the years 2014 and 2018. The regions that experienced more frequent outbreaks of the disease, with the exception Africa, published most of the research work. Therefore, much more research work is needed to protect the safety of blood donors in Africa.

The provision of blood products to save a life is a noble undertaking for any organization tasked with the duty. In addition to saving millions of lives, blood products pose health risks associated with adverse events. Much has been done to mitigate these challenges, but emerging new infectious diseases pose a public health challenge to both the safety of blood and its availability. The dengue virus an arbovirus is one such virus that is endemic in tropical and subtropical countries. The data emerging from the published papers show that dengue could be a major threat to blood safety and availability in the future. To address these threats, a collaborative approach through one health system is the only avenue to provide a last solution. One health has been implemented as a strategy to mitigate zoonotic diseases and its results are very impressive. This piece of work is a fraction of our larger project that aims to address threats to the dengue virus and blood safety in Kenya and the rest of Africa. In conclusion, adopting one health in the fight against the dengue virus in blood safety will be the best approach to ensure a safer supply of blood products.

Background: Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoea are microbes that have been associated with urethritis in both male and female genders, which often may lead to complicated conditions such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and infertility globally among others health complications. In Kenya and other developing countries, sexually transmitted infections associated with Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoea still pose a challenge in public health. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted by reviewing laboratory data from Jan 2018 to Dec 2018 to estimate the prevalence of C trachomatis and N gonorrhoea coinfections in patients attending a tertiary institution and its satellite clinics spread across the country. A total of 1228 patient’s data aged 3-69 years was reviewed; with age, gender and Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoea status being analyzed. Results: A total of 1228 patients who visited the hospital in 2018 had their urine samples being tested for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoea by use of a PCR technique. Majority of the patients were males (63.7%). The patients who tested for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoea had an average age of 34 years (range: 3–69 years). Of those 1.4% tested positive for both Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoea infections, and males were more infected than females (1.1% vs 0.3). From the information gathered during the study period, the proportion of patients with Chlamydia trachomatis infection was (16.1 %) (95 % CI 9.5, 17.9), and with N. gonorrhoea infection was 5.4%. Coinfection was highest among sexually active group that is those aged between 21 years to 40 years. Conclusion: The prevalence of C. trachomatis is significantly high among male patients. We recommend the implement a molecular screening for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoea to identifying asymptomatic female cases. This study further provides evidence on the importance of contact tracing in the management of Chlamydia trachomatis and other STIs. There is an urgent need for studies designed to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoea among female patients who are majorly asymptomatic in Kenya.

Although fungi are known to be less pathogenic and mostly saprophytic in their nature as compared to other groups of microbes, those that produce aflatoxin have been associated with severe human disease. An example of such disease is Aflatoxicosis caused by soil-borne pathogenic fungi of the species Aspergillus parasiticus and Aspergillus flavus. They produce a mycotoxin substance that is carcinogenic to the human liver with severe outcomes. The objective of this study was to determine urinary aflatoxin levels among the residents of Makueni County, previously affected by Aflatoxicosis. This was a cross-sectional study that involved the use of primary data collected from 106 participants. The method for data collection included a structured questionnaire and the collection of the urine samples for aflatoxin M1 analysis at Bora Biotech Laboratories LTD. The urinary levels of AFM1 were detected by use of an ELISA kit. Data was entered in SPSS and analysed through Chi-Square for the association. The study participants, including both male and female, had an age of between 15 and 91 years and with an average age of 41±18. Out of the 106 study participants, n=68 (72%) were females and n=26 (28%) were males. Majority of the study participants were with a median age of 24 years old. AFM1 levels were detected in 99.1% % of all urine samples at a range of 25-2337 pg./ml. The mean and median concentration of AFM1 in urine was 637.6 ± 512.7and 525 pg./mL, respectively. The results of this study provide information on the current situation of aflatoxin exposure. From what is evident from our study a lot needs to be done to mitigate on the long-term effect of this high exposure.  Therefore, the study encourages the concerned ministry to have a broader focus on the extent of aflatoxin food contamination from this region plus other regions across the country.