Influence of Knowledge on the Management of Typhoid Fever in Bungoma County in Kenya

Following the International conference on primary health care in 1978 by the World Health Assembly, one of the objectives was to achieve Health for all by the year 2000. A follow up on this shows that this objective was not achieved. There have been efforts by various stakeholders involved in health such as the Ministry of Health, WHO among others, to ensure that Health for All is achieved. But despite the efforts to improve health and improving health systems, typhoid fever still remains the leading cause of morbidity in Bungoma County in Kenya. This study therefore sought to examine the influence of knowledge on the management of typhoid fever in Bungoma County in Kenya. The conceptual framework was based on the basic principles of disease control. Descriptive survey research design was used in the study. The target population was 876,491 men, women and the children, 42 health staff from 42 health facilities and 16 village elders from the 8 divisions in the County. Multi-stage, stratified, snowball, purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the study samples. Data collection instruments used included interview schedules, observations, and focus group discussions. Data was analysed using both the qualitative and quantitative techniques. The study found out that knowledge on disease cause has major influence on the management of typhoid fever as when people understand the etiology of the disease, then it is easy to prevent and control it. The study concluded that therefore, health education and knowledge on typhoid fever needs to be provided to the community through public health education to assist in the management of typhoid fever. The study recommended that the health sector should work with other sectors in the management of typhoid fever since the determinants of health and hence typhoid lie outside the health sector.