Social and gender determinants of risk of cryptosporidiosis, an emerging zoonosis, in Dagoretti, Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the social and gender determinants of the risk of exposure to Cryptosporidium from urban dairying in Dagoretti, Nairobi. Focus group discussions were held in six locations to obtain qualitative information on risk of exposure. A repeated cross-sectional descriptive study included participatory assessment and household questionnaires (300 randomly selected urban dairy farming households and 100 non-dairying neighbours). One-hundred dairy households randomly selected from the 300 dairy households participated in an additional economic survey along with 40 neighbouring non-dairy households. We found that exposure to Cryptosporidium was influenced by gender, age and role in the household. Farm workers and people aged 50 to 65 years had most contact with cattle, and women had greater contact with raw milk. However, children had relatively higher consumption of raw milk than other age groups. Adult women had more daily contact with cattle faeces than adult men, and older women had more contact than older men. Employees had greater contact with cattle than other groups and cattle faeces, and most (77 %) were male. Women took more care of sick people and were more at risk from exposure by this route. Poverty did not affect the level of exposure to cattle but did decrease consumption of milk. There was no significant difference between men and women as regards levels of knowledge on symptoms of cryptosporidiosis infections or other zoonotic diseases associated with dairy farming. Awareness of cryptosporidiosis and its transmission increased significantly with rising levels of education. Members of non-dairy households and children under the age of 12 years had significantly higher odds of reporting diarrhoea: gender, season and contact with cattle or cattle dung were not significantly linked with diarrhoea. In conclusion, social and gender factors are important determinants of exposure to zoonotic disease in Nairobi.

The Prevalence of Intestinal Coccidian Parasites Burden in HIV/AIDS Patients on Antiretroviral Therapy in HIV Centers in Mubi, Nigeria

“…This finding disagrees with the report from Kenya [26]. The authors argued that that exposure to Cryptosporidium was influenced by gender, age and role in the household.…”

Evaluation of farmers’ knowledge-attitude-practice about zoonotic diseases in Kars, Turkey

“…In a study conducted in Kenya, it was reported that there were no diff erences between the genders regarding the knowledge for a zoonotic disease analyzed, but that the women were in the risk group for the zoonotic diseases 22 . Th e result of the study is consistent with this study.…”

A multiattribute utility evaluation for the detection of Cryptosporidium species in stool

“…However, Pereira et al (2002) have also shown that the risk of infection among male patients was 2.2 times higher as compared to that in females among children hospitalized for diarrhea in Brazil. Kimani et al (2012) have observed the proportion of males to be 3.35 times higher as compared to that of females in a study conducted at Kenya. Higher risk to males in developing countries could be attributed to higher prevalence of manual jobs, unhygienic conditions of work and eating environment and gender wise differentiation of occupations, which involve higher proportion of males as compared to females thus enhancing the risk of males as compared to females.…”