Irrigation Practices and Intestinal Helminth Infections in Southern and Central Zones of Tigray

Background: Irrigation practices have impact on the distribution of schistosomiasis; so; identifying newly established schistosomiasis transmission foci allows for designing prevention and control strategy. Objective: To establish schistosomiasis prevalence and intensity in relation to development of water bodies for irrigation. Methods: A survey of Results: Among the 1012 males and 998 females examined; 29males and 27.5females were found positive for one or more parasite. The prevalence of S. mansoni was 27in longstanding irrigated; 10.8in recently constructed irrigation schemes and 1.8in the non-irrigated rural localities. In the urban setting; its prevalence was 15.5in areas with water body nearby and 0.5in areas with no water body nearby (P0.0001). New S. mansoni infection foci were detected in Tumuga with a prevalence of 87; Dibdibo (41); Mariam Shewito (25); Adiha (23) and Lekia (9). Conclusion: The increasing risk of schistosomiasis mansoni in the irrigation sites is high. Hence; designing preventive and control strategies concurrent with the development of the irrigation projects will be required to reduce prevalence of schistosomiasis

Food Security in HIV/AIDS Response: Insights from Homa Bay; Kenya

This paper examines the viability and effectiveness of a pilot farming initiative in reversing impacts of HIV/AIDS on the most affected households in Homa Bay; Kenya. The paper argues that once patients are stable; they can effectively be engaged in farming with minimal financial and technical support; resulting in enhanced food security of the affected households. More importantly; it helps to reduce HIV/AIDS-related stigma and improve the individual's self-esteem. Some of the key challenges of the pilot initiative were the limited number of agricultural extension workers and absence of facilities to enable them to deliver services to the farmers; the high cost of farm inputs; the unavailability of farm inputs when they were needed; poorly developed agricultural markets; and the absence of irrigation facilities. The paper recommends the sensitive scaling-up of this approach. However; farming initiatives by HIV/AIDS service NGOs should be linked to at least three key aspects: (a) treatment; care and support to HIV/AIDS affected households; (b) micro grant schemes or subsidies to enable farmers to purchase farming tools and farm inputs; and (c) comprehensive on-farm training support. To ensure effectiveness and wider reach; government needs to view agriculture through an HIV lens and promote a multisectoral approach that recognises the relationship between HIV/AIDS and food security. A number of immediate actions are required to strengthen this relationship; such as increased public investment to augment extension services; subsidise farm inputs; and develop infrastructure including agricultural markets

Potential sources of campylobacter species in the homes of farm workers in Zimbabwe

Chicken faeces; houseflies; household stored drinking water; cooked or prepared foods and handwashing of people of all age groups and hands of children under 5 years old were examined as potential sources and transmission routes of canpylobacter species in a farmworker community. Campylobacter species were found to be common in chicken faeces collected from the homesteads of the farmworkers but were rarely isolated from houseflies or household stored drinking water. They were not isolated from foods and hands of people of all ages. A comparison of campylobacter species isolated from humans and chickens showed campylobacter jejuni to be more common than campylobacter coli in human isolates while the two species were evenly distributed in chickens. Most of the C. jejuni isolates from humans and chickens belonged to biotype II and none belonged to biotype III. There was some similarity in some C. jejuni serotypes isolated from humans and chickens. Chickens were therefore found to be the main potential source of campylobacter species in the homes of farmworkers

Report of the baseline survey of farm health services

Description of the farms: The farm environment still need to be improved upon in terms of water/sanitation/health facilities and recreation facilities. The number of people living on the farms is very variable depending on the season. There are; on average; 64 casual staff and their families per farm and between 21 to over 100 permanent labourers. On average; each compound has 93 huts housing a population up to a maximum of 646 people. Unfortunately; the survey did not differentiate the health status of the casual and permanent labourers. The commercial farms visited grew tobacco; soya beans and maize. The casual labourers were mainly recruited to provide extra labour for planting; weeding and harvesting. The casual labourers are more at risk in terms of their health since they stay in makeshift huts i.e. pole/dagga compared to permanent staff who occupy brick/asbestos houses. The improvement of health status of the farm health workers depends; therefore; on the sound understanding and liaison between the farmer; MOH; RC and farm workers. Water facilities: Farm workers depended on boreholes (71.8) and tap water (7.9) as the main water source of drinking water. That 25.7 of farm workers still depend on uprooted water sources (ie dams; rivers and other unprotected sources) highlights the need for the programme to address this issue. Sanitation facilities: Fifty-four percent (54) of the farm labourers use Blair or pit latrines with the pit latrines having squat holes up to a maximum of 98. These communal facilities are difficult to maintain and emphasis should be towards construction of family Blair toilets (currently available to 48 of the population surveyed). Although the bush is used by relatively smaller proportion of the people (12); effort should be made to improve the sanitation facilities on the farms. Bush toilets are the most dangerous as faeces are swept into the river/dam water during the rainy season. Diarrhoea outbreaks and even cholera can occur