Browsing by Author "Gitonga, L. K."

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    Patient Related Factors Influencing Timely Diagnosis of Tuberculosis in Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya
    (International Journal of Health Sciences and Research, 2023-10) Linda, B.K.; Gitonga, L. K.; Mukhwana E. S.; M’Kiunga, K. S.
    Globally, the control of Tuberculosis (TB) has remained a public health challenge despite numerous prevention and treatment programs. Kenya is ranked among countries with a high TB burden globally and has the highest incidences of all types of tuberculosis compared to other East African Countries. The high prevalence of TB in Kenya been attributed to delays in the diagnosis of TB. The consequence of the delays has been the increased spread of the disease, disease advancement, poor treatment outcomes, and high cost of patient treatment and care the affected populations. The aim of this study was to assess patient related factors influencing timely diagnosis of TB in Tharaka Nithi County. Tharaka Nithi County is among the counties with the highest prevalence of TB in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey study design. A sample of 154 patients randomly selected from three hospitals in Tharaka Nithi County was used. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. The data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Associations between patient related factors and duration of TB before diagnosis was tested using Chi-square. The study findings revealed that most (70.86%) of TB patients had delayed diagnosis. Persistent cough was the major sign that led patients to seek for care, while believe that signs and symptoms would disappear was major reason for delay in seeking treatment and care. Sex, age, marital status, employment, self-medication, stigma, work and smoking history were the patients related factors significantly associated with timely diagnosis of TB (P<0.05). The study recommends promotion of care seeking behavior through raising public awareness on tuberculosis, enhancing active case findings, strengthening community-hospital referral systems, boosting health system partnerships for early detection of TB.
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    Rapid,Economical and selective Compexometric Determination of Iron (III) in its synthetic alloys using 3 hydroxy-3 phynyl-1-(2,4,6-tribromophynyl)
    (2019-09) Ombaka, O.; Musundi, S. W.; Gitonga, L. K.; Kibara, D.; Olivia, A. N.
    The present study describes a simple, selective, rapid and economical method for the determination of iron (III) in its synthetic alloys using 3-hydroxy -3- phenyl-1- (2,4,6- tribromophenyl) triazene as metallochromic indicator in the 𝑃𝐻 and temperature range of 2.5-3.0 and 20 − 600𝑐 respectively. The colour and shape of the synthesized indicator was light yellow shinning needles having melting point of 590𝑐. It was crystallized from ethanol. The results of elemental study showed that, the values of C, H, N obtained experimentally agrees very well with those obtained theoretically. The colour at the end point changes from violet to light yellow using EDTA as a titrant. There is no interference in either determination from common metal and anion ions other than Pb(II), Cr(II), Mo(VI), Mn(II), U(vI), Cu(II), Cd(II), 𝐹−, 𝑃𝑂4 3−, 𝐶2𝑂4 2−, 𝐻𝑃𝑂4 2−. Reproducible and accurate results are obtained for 5.59 -1.12mg of Iron with relative error less than ±1.79% and standard deviation not more than 0.10%. The results of the test method and reference method (Atomic absorption spectrophotometric) showed that, there is no statistical difference in the results by the two methods.