Underlying Sociocultural Practices Influencing Prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Kajiado County Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) often has lifelong negative consequences for a woman’s physical and mental health but is still practiced in some parts of Kenya including Kajiado County. We aimed to estimate the current prevalence as well as the socio-cultural… Read More

Willingness and Ability to Pay for Sanitation in Busia Globally, access to improved sanitation remains a major challenge where about 2.4 billion people still lack toilets. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are the worst affected where about 800 million people still practice open defecation with remarkable negative health and economic… Read More

Socio-Cultural Barriers Influencing Utilization of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Information and Services among Adolescents and Youth 10 – 24 Years in Pastoral Communities in Kenya As in other developing countries, sexual and reproductive ill-health continues to mostly affect adolescents and youths. Samburu and Turkana counties in Kenya have some of the highest levels of total fertility rates (TFR) at 6.3 and 6.9 respectively placing them… Read More

Genomic insights into the 2016–2017 cholera epidemic in Yemen Yemen is currently experiencing, to our knowledge, the largest cholera epidemic in recent history. The first cases were declared in September 2016, and over 1.1 million cases and 2,300 deaths have since been reported. Here we investigate the phylogenetic relationships,… Read More

The effects of HIV self-testing kits in increasing uptake of male partner testing among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Kenya: a randomized controlled trial HIV self-testing could add a new approach to scaling up HIV testing with potential of being high impact, low cost, confidential, and empowering for users. Marwa, T., Karanja, S., Osero, J., & Orago, A. (2019). The effects of HIV self-testing… Read More

The effect of bi-annual community-directed treatment with ivermectin on the incidence of epilepsy in onchocerciasis endemic villages in South Sudan: a study protocol Nodding syndrome (NS) is a devastating epileptic illness of unknown aetiology mainly affecting children 5–15 years of age. Head nodding distinguishes NS from other forms of epilepsy. Other manifestations of the illness include mental and physical growth retardation. Many children… Read More

Factors Influencing Male Involvement in Family Planning in Ntchisi District, Malawi – A Qualitative Study Malawi is among countries with the highest maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and fertility rate (FR) in Africa, among others caused by an unmet need for family planning (FP). In Malawi, FP is seen as a women’s domain and because of… Read More

Understanding different positions on female genital cutting among Maasai and Samburu communities in Kenya: a cultural psychological perspective This paper presents an analysis of different positions on female genital cutting, either legitimising the practice or challenging it. The framework it offers has been developed from cultural psychological theory and qualitative data collected in Maasai communities around Loitokitok and… Read More