Background: Anaemia during childhood adversely affects mental, physical and social development of the children, therefore morphological patterns of anaemia in under- five children are considered essential for classification, diagnosis and management. Aim: This study aimed at assessing morphological patterns, the prevalence and associated factors of anaemia among under-five children on Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) programmes in Masogo sub-county hospital, Kisumu County, Kenya. Method: A cross-sectional health facility-based study was conducted among 175 children aged 6 to 59 months who attended clinic for the PMTCT programme for the period of January 2020 to December 2020. Pretested and structured questionnaires were used to collect socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the family and child. Capillary blood sample was collected from each child for malaria parasite and Peripheral Blood Film (PBF) examination. Result: Complete blood counts indicate that microcytic pattern was the most common, representing 30 (42.3%) followed by microcytic hypochromic pattern 20 (28.2%), normocytic normochromic pattern with 11 (15.5%) and lastly dimorphic pattern with 10 (14.0%). High prevalence of anaemia was observed in children who were urban dwellers (50.0%), in children whose mothers aged 18-27 years (44.0%) and had no formal education (48.1%). Besides, the high prevalence rate of anaemia was found among children with a family monthly income of less than 500 Ksh. (46.9%), early (<6 months) introduction of complementary foods (71.4%). Conclusion: This study has revealed that the prevalence of anaemia in children less than five years is high and is a severe public health problem in the study area. Therefore, the policymakers should make a strategy that can reduce poverty and increase the awareness to women on breastfeeding, nutrition, and other associated factors to reduce anaemia.

Background: Anaemia during childhood adversely affects mental, physical and social development of the children, therefore morphological patterns of anaemia in under- five children are considered essential for classification, diagnosis and management. Aim: This study aimed at assessing morphological patterns, the prevalence and associated factors of anaemia among under-five children on Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) programmes in Masogo sub-county hospital, Kisumu County, Kenya. Method: A cross-sectional health facility-based study was conducted among 175 children aged 6 to 59 months who attended clinic for the PMTCT programme for the period of January 2020 to December 2020. Pretested and structured questionnaires were used to collect socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the family and child. Capillary blood sample was collected from each child for malaria parasite and Peripheral Blood Film (PBF) examination. Result: Complete blood counts indicate that microcytic pattern was the most common, representing 30 (42.3%) followed by microcytic hypochromic pattern 20 (28.2%), normocytic normochromic pattern with 11 (15.5%) and lastly dimorphic pattern with 10 (14.0%). High prevalence of anaemia was observed in children who were urban dwellers (50.0%), in children whose mothers aged 18-27 years (44.0%) and had no formal education (48.1%). Besides, the high prevalence rate of anaemia was found among children with a family monthly income of less than 500 Ksh. (46.9%), early (<6 months) introduction of complementary foods (71.4%) Conclusion: This study has revealed that the prevalence of anaemia in children less than five years is high and is a severe public health problem in the study area. Therefore, the policymakers should make a strategy that can reduce poverty and increase the awareness to women on breastfeeding, nutrition, and other associated factors to reduce anaemia.

Candidiasis is the most common fungal infection in hospitalized patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome resulting to morbidity and mortality. This study is aimed at characterizing, incidence, susceptibility, resistance genes, antibiofilm activity, and virulence traits of Candida species isolated from HIV-Infected patients. One hundred and eighty-one samples were collected and cultured on Sabouraud Dextrose Agar, biochemical tests and confirmed using automated Vitek-2 ® Compact bioMérieux followed by susceptibility tests, done by use of various conventional antifungals against the isolates using standard procedures. Virulence factors, biofilm formations and resistance genes of Candida strains were determined. Out of the 181 samples, 46 were identified as Candida spp., 20 C. albicans (43.5%), 6 C. tropicalis (13.0%), 8 C. krusei (17.4%), 4 C. glabrata (8.7%), 3 C. famata (6.5%), 3 C. parapsilosis (6.5%), and 2 C. guilliermondii (4.3%). All the Candida albicans isolated were both Gram positive and Germ test tube test positive. Eighteen (90%) of the isolates were susceptible to Clotrimazole at a concentration of 5 μg/mL – 10μg/mL followed by 17 (85%) isolates to Panosoconazole at a concentration of 0.002 μg/mL – 5μg/mL. Eight (40.0%) of the Candida albicans isolates possessed the gene (cdr1) that was observed at 286 bp. Virulence enzymes was determined in which 100% produced Haemolysin, followed by proteinase (75.0%), phospholipase (50%), coagulase at (50%) and lastly capsulase (25.0%). Fluconazole and Clotrimazole did not inhibit growth of C. albicans at high concentrations but from our study, it was deduced that they inhibit biofilm formation at lower concentrations. C. albicans isolates were resistant to multiple antifungal including those commonly used in the management on HIV/AIDs patient. This attributed to resistant genes and produced various virulence factors that were found to be present in the isolates. Therefore, there is a need to carry out regular surveillance on antifungal drug resistance.

IntroductionVibrio cholerae can switch between motile and biofilm lifestyles with some of its strains forming biofilms in addition to production of various virulence traits and possessing antimicrobial resistance traits. This study is aim to show antibiofilm formation activity, resistant genes profiling and detection of virulence factors of toxigenic vibrio cholerae isolates from Kisumu County.MethodologyA total of 119 Vibrio cholerae O1, biotype El Tor isolates collected during 2017 cholera outbreak in Kisumu County were used for this study. The samples were cultured on TCBS and PCR assay carried out using standard procedures. Biofilm assay tests and detection of virulence factors were also done by use of standard procedures.ResultsOf the 101 confirmed vibrio cholerae isolates, 80.2% possessed the cholera toxin gene (ctxA) whereas 19.8% did not. Analysis of the toxR gene revealed that 98.0% harbored the toxR gene and only 2.0% did not. It was also revealed that 80.2% harbored the class I integron (inDS gene) while 19.8% did not, 93.1% were confirmed to possess the SXT integrating conjugative element (ICE) while 7.0% did not. The tetracycline resistance gene was present in 96.0% of the isolates. In 7 isolants strains which were resistance to common used antibiotics were screened for biofilm formation. Three of the strains (04/17-07, 06/17-14, and 05/17-03) failed to form biofilm while four strains namely 03/17-16, 02/17-09, 04/17-13 and P. aeruginosa ATCC 10145 as a positive control formed biofilms. In addition, out of those 7 isolants 71.42% produced protease, 85.71% produced phospholipases, 71.42% of isolates has the ability to produce lipase and 100% were able to produce the haemolysin.ConclusionAn understanding of this intricate signaling pathway is essential for the development of methods to treat and prevent this devastating disease.

Background: The World Health Organization recommends that malaria treatment should begin with parasitological diagnosis. This will help to regulate misuse of anti-malarial drugs in areas with high transmission. Aim: Aim was to assess the prevalence of parasitological confirmed malaria among under five years children presenting with fever or history of fever attending medication at Masogo sub-county hospital. Setting: The study was conducted in Masogo Sub County, Kisumu County, Kenya. Data and methodology: The study used 2020 dataset from the laboratory MOH 706 reporting tool with a total number of 6787 children under five years old tested in the lab. Result: Of the 6787 test performed in the year 2020, 2225 (32.8%) turn positive to malaria parasite where there was high prevalence in female children at 1141 (51.3%) than male children 1084 (48.7%) of the total positive examined. Prevalence of the malaria among the age group bracket was high at 48-59 months old at 625 (28.1%) followed by 36-47 months 620 (27.9%), 24-35 months 450 (20.2%), 12-23 months 410 (18.4%) and lastly 0-11 months old at 120 (5.4%). Conclusions: Reasons for the increased of the prevalence as the age increased among the under five children need to be further explored and addressed, there is enough evidence that immediate action is needed to address the unique needs of this population. Such factors could include lack of net used and separation of the mother and the child from sleeping together or early birth after the child. Keywords: malaria; under five children; fever.