Epidemiological Assessment of Seasonal Diarrhoea Cases in Flood Prone Chiga Ward, Lake Victoria Basin, Kenya

Introduction: In western Kenya, around Lake Victoria basin, diarrhoea is generally common among adults due to the high prevalence of immunecompromised persons. Objective: To assess seasonal diarrhoea cases in flood prone Chiga ward Lake Victoria basin, Kenya between 2012 to 2016. Method: Health records of clinically-diagnosed and treated diarrhoea cases in the period between 2012 to 2016 were extracted from the registers at Chiga Health Centre and then stored electronically in an excel format. Monthly average rainfall in millimeters for the period of 2012 to 2016 was collected from TuTiempo.net for the Lake Victoria basin. Data transformation and analysis for health records and rainfall data were performed using R software (version 3.4.2). Result: A total of 774 cases of diarrhoea were treated at Chiga Health Centre between 2012 and 2016. More than two-third (67.3%) of the cases were adults (≥ 18 years) with a standard deviation of (16.52) and (IQR: 25.0-49.0). followed by older children (≥ 5 years) with (SD=1.94) and (IQR: 7.0-10.0). Adults reported high cases of diarrhoea compared to older children across all the years from 2012 to 2016; this implies that adolescent group reported low cases of diarrhoea. More than half (59.9%) of the cases were females while 40.1% were males. Percentage distribution of the treated cases followed a seasonal pattern with peaks being observed from quarter two and quarter four of each year. Conclusion: From the findings of this study, age and seasonality are key epidemiological variables for the prevention and control of a seasonal outbreak of diarrhoea. Provision of portable clean water to the households may reduce the prevalence of diarrhoea, especially among residents in Chiga ward.