Browsing by Author "Mchau, Geofrey J."

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    Cyanotoxins occurrence in drinking waters and risk of exposure to human in Ukerewe district Mwanza, Tanzania
    (2020-04) Mchau, Geofrey J.
    There is global concern regarding the increase of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in freshwater and their potential effects on human health. This study was conducted to determine the occurrence of cyanotoxins and assessed their risk of exposure to human. A cross sectional study of 432 subjects was conducted to assess related health risk due to cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins exposure in selected villages of the Ukerewe District in Mwanza, Tanzania. A total of 138 water samples and 432 serum samples were collected in two phases (February and December). Thirteen cyanotoxins namely; Microcystins (-LA, -LF, -LR, -LY, -LW, -RR, -YR, -WR, dm MC-RR and dm MC-LR), anatoxin-a (AT-A), nodularin (NOD) and cylindrospermopsin (CYN) were assessed in water and in human serum by UPLC-MS/MS. Cylindrospermopsin was the most abundant cyanotoxin detected in the lake water samples in both phases. Microcystin (MC) congeners; -RR, -LR and –YR were detected in phase I while MC-RR and MC-LR were detected in phase II. No cyanotoxins were detected in wells and treated pipe water samples. Furthermore, phycocyanin concentration detected in Lake Victoria ranged from 5 to 58.4 μg/L which is above the WHO limit. The concentrations of cyanobacteria cells were beyond WHO acceptable limits. Species of Microcystis aeruginosa and Anabaena spp were identified as the most abundant cyanobacteria. Acute illnesses such as throat, eye, skin irritation and gastrointestinal illnesses were highly reported by lake water users as compared to wells and pipe water (P<0.001). Cyanotoxins of CYN, NOD and MCs congener (-LR, -RR and dmMC-LR) were detected in human serum. The concentration of CYN detected in humans ranged from 0.02 to 0.15 ng/mL and MCs ranged from 0.2 to 0.11 ng/mL. Concentration of cyanotoxin detected in human serum and liver biochemistry indices elevation, shows an association between the two with correlation coefficient of 0.33 for MC-LR while for combined cyanotixins of MC-LR, CYN and NOD is 0.78. This is the first study to report CYN, dm MC-LR and NOD in human serum, and CYN and NOD in freshwater of Lake Victoria. This study indicates the potential health risk of using lake water without any treatment for human consumption.
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    A Framework for Timely and More Informative Epidemic Diseases Surveillance: The Case of Tanzania
    (Journal of Health Informatics in Developing Countries, 2018-12-12) Rutatola, Edger P.; Yonah, Zaipuna O.; Nyambo, Devotha G.; Mchau, Geofrey J.; Musabila, Albogast K.
    Background: A number of health facilities in the United Republic of Tanzania use different Hospital Management Information Systems (HoMISs) for capturing and managing clinical and administrative information for report generation. Despite the potentials of the data in the systems for use in epidemic diseases surveillance, timely extraction of the data for integrated data mining and analysis to produce more informative reports is still a challenge. This paper identifies the candidate data attributes for epidemic diseases surveillance to be extracted and analyzed from the Government of Tanzania Hospital Management Information System (GoT-HoMIS). It also examines the current reporting setup for epidemic diseases surveillance in Tanzania from the health facilities to the district, regional, and national levels. Methods: The study was conducted at the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly, and Children (MoHCDGEC), Tumbi Designated Regional Referral Hospital (TDRRH), Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), and Mzumbe Health Centre, all in the United Republic of Tanzania. A total of 10 key informants (medical doctors, epidemiologists, and focal persons for various health information systems in Tanzania) were interviewed to obtain primary data. Data entry process in the GoT-HoMIS was also observed. Documents were reviewed to broaden understanding on several aspects. Results: All the respondents (100%) suggested patients’ gender, age, and residence as suitable attributes for epidemic diseases surveillance. Other suggested attributes were occupation (85.71%), diagnosis (57.14%), catchment area population (57.14%), vital status (57.14%), date of onset (57.14%), tribe (42.86%), marital status (42.86%), and religion (14.29%). Timeliness, insufficient immediate particulars on an epidemic-prone case(s), aggregated data limiting extensive analytics, missing community data and ways to analyze rumors, and poor data quality were also identified as challenges in the current reporting setup. Conclusion: A framework is proposed to guide researchers in integrating data from health facilities with those from social media and other sources for enhanced epidemic disease surveillance. Data entrants in the systems should also be informed on the essence and applications of data they feed, as quality data are the roots of quality reports.