Risk factors for Tuberculosis in Mwea West Sub-County, Kirinyaga County, Kenya
Abstract
In the year 2012, 89,568 cases of Tuberculosis (TB) were notified in Kenya. Using this figure, World health Organization (WHO) ranked the country 15th out of 22 countries with high TB burden. Mwea west is one of the sub counties in Kenya in high TB prevalence and this descriptive cross sectional study attempted to establish those risk factors associated with this. The result revealed that about 80% of the respondents had ever suffered from TB with 17% and 3% reporting that they had contracted the disease twice and more than twice respectively. Additionally, 40% of the respondents reported that at least one of their family members had contracted TB. The high level of TB in this population is an acceptable in this day and age. HIV/AIDS infection was conspicuously present in over 70% of respondents with TB. Other lifestyle issues identified included smoking 50%, alcohol abuse 62%and low knowledge on TB transmission. Health promotion interventions aimed at behavior modification should be scaled up and an analytical study determine the
relationships between social demographics and prevalence should be carried out.