Abstract: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) pandemic increased significantly worldwide. The rise in cases of HIV/AIDS was also followed by an increase in the incidence of opportunistic infection, with tuberculosis being the most opportunistic infection found in HIV/AIDS and the main cause of mortality in HIV/AIDS patients. Diagnosis of tuberculosis in HIV/AIDS patients is often difficult because of the uncommon symptom in HIV/AIDS patients compared to those without the disease. Thus, diagnostic tools are required that are more effective and efficient to diagnose tuberculosis in HIV/AIDS. CXCL-10/IP-10 is a chemokine that binds to the CXCR3 receptor found in HIV/AIDS patients with a weakened immune system. Tuberculosis infection in HIV/AIDS activates chemokine IP-10 in urine, which is used as a marker for diagnosis of infection. The aim of this study was to prove whether IP-10 urine can be a biomarker diagnosis of active lung tuberculosis in HIV-AIDS patients. Design of this study is a cross sectional study involving HIV/AIDS patients with lung tuberculosis as the subject of this study. Forty-seven HIV/AIDS patients with tuberculosis based on clinical and biochemical laboratory were asked to collect urine samples and IP-10/CXCL-10 urine being measured using ELISA method with 18 healthy human urine samples as control. Forty-seven patients diagnosed as HIV/AIDS were included as a subject of this study. HIV/AIDS were more common in male than in women with the percentage in male 85.1% vs. 14.5% of women. In this study, most diagnosed patients were aged 31-40 years old, followed by those 21-30 years, and > 40 years old, with one case diagnosed at age less than 20 years of age. From the result of the urine IP-10 using ELISA method, there was significant increase of the mean value of IP-10 urine in patients with TB-HIV/AIDS co-infection compared to the healthy control with mean 61.05 pg/mL ± 78.01 pg/mL vs. mean 17.2 pg/mL. Based on this research, there was significant increase of urine IP-10/CXCL-10 in active lung tuberculosis with HIV/AIDS compared to the healthy control. From this finding, it is necessary to conduct further research into whether urine IP-10/CXCL-10 plays a significant role in TB-HIV/AIDS co-infection, which can also be used as a biomarker in the early diagnosis of TB-HIV.
Abstract: The performances of small and medium enterprises
have stagnated in the last two decades. This has mainly been due to
the emergence of HIV / Aids. The disease has had a detrimental
effect on the general economy of the country leading to morbidity
and mortality of the Kenyan workforce in their primary age. The
present study sought to establish the economic impact of HIV / Aids
on the micro-enterprise development in Obunga slum – Kisumu, in
terms of production loss, increasing labor related cost and to establish
possible strategies to address the impact of HIV / Aids on microenterprises.
The study was necessitated by the observation that most
micro-enterprises in the slum are facing severe economic and social
crisis due to the impact of HIV / Aids, they get depleted and close
down within a short time due to death of skilled and experience
workforce. The study was carried out between June 2008 and June
2009 in Obunga slum. Data was subjected to computer aided
statistical analysis that included descriptive statistic, chi-squared and
ANOVA techniques. Chi-squared analysis on the micro-enterprise
owners opinion on the impact of HIV / Aids on depletion of microenterprise
compared to other diseases indicated high levels of the
negative effects of the disease at significance levels of P