The Scourge of Aflatoxins in Kenya: A 60-Year Review (1960 to 2020)

Table 10

Aflatoxicosis outbreaks reported in Kenya since the discovery of aflatoxins in 1960.

Affected group	Case-patients/number affected	Area	Toxin source	Recorded effects	Years	Authors
Humans, dogs	None confirmed	Eastern Kenya (29 districts)	Suspected contaminated maize	Price spiral down, grain trade breakdown, unconfirmed dog deaths in Nairobi	2010	Muthomi et al. [236]
Humans	5	Kibwezi, Kajiado, Mutomo	Maize	3 hospitalized, 2 deaths	2008	Muthomi et al. [40]
Humans	4	Kibwezi, Makueni	Maize	2 deaths in Makindu town of Mukueni County	2007	Wagacha and Muthomi [3]
Humans	20	Makueni, Kitui, Machakos, Mutomo	Contaminated maize	Acute poisoning, 10 deaths in Mutomo and 9 in Makueni	2006	Daniel et al. [70, 103]
Humans	75	Machakos, Makueni, Kitui	Maize	Acute poisoning, 75 cases, 32 deaths	2005	Azziz-Baumgartner et al. [69, 70]
Humans	331	Eastern/Central Machakos, Kitui, and Makueni areas	Contaminated maize	Acute poisoning, 125 deaths	2004	Lewis et al. [237]
Humans	6	Thika	Mouldy maize	6 deaths	2003	Onsongo [238]
Poultry/dogs	Large numbers	Coast	Contaminated feed	150 deaths	2002	Njapau and Probst [239]
Humans	3, 26	Meru North, Maua	Mouldy maize, contaminated maize	Severe liver damage, 16 deaths	2001	Probst et al. [39]
Humans	3	Meru North	Maize	Acute effects, 3 deaths	1998	Mutegi et al. [38]
Poultry	Large numbers	Kenya	Imported maize	Deaths	1984/1985	[240, 241]
Humans	12	Machakos	Poorly stored maize	Deaths	1981	Ngindu et al. [177]
Poultry/dogs	Large numbers	Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret	Poorly stored feed	Deaths	1977/1978	Muraguri et al. [241, 242]
Ducklings	16,000	Rift Valley	Peanut ration	Deaths	1960	Peers and Linsell [82]

Years are those in which the aflatoxicoses occurred rather than the years the data were published. Data are from [38, 92, 97]. A case report is also filed of a possible aflatoxicosis of a 17-year-old schoolboy [214].