No abstract

Background: Childhood poisoning is a common but avoidable problem in developing countries such as Nigeria. Objectives:To determine the pattern of childhood poisoning in the Warri Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Method:The case notes of all the children seen at Central Hospital Warri, the reference base for the region and GN Children Clinic the pioneer children's hospital in the region. This is a review of cases over a ten year period, from 2000 to 2009. The information obtained was analysed.Results: A total of 156 children aged 0-16 years diagnosed with poisoning were seen at the central hospital in Warri and at the GN Children's Clinic which is also in Warri over a 10 year period from 2000 to 2009 under review. The male to female ratio is 2:1, and 75% of the children were aged 5 years or less. Most of the patients were from the low socio-economic class. Most of the poisoning was unintentional and occurred through ingestion (97.6%). Kerosene was the major substance leading to poisoning (56.6%). Alcohol ranked second in the study. Poisoning from drugs was the third most common source of poisoning and in that category most of the indices were in the highest income group. Most of the patients presented with mild symptoms and the mortality rate was 7%. Conclusion:Kerosine was found to be the most common source of poisoning. Most of the poisoning was unintensional and deaths cause by this form of poisoning can be prevented with proper health education and effective enactment of laws that will reduce the incidence of childhood poisoning.

The sickle cell disease was discovered in England in 1910 1. It is a Haemoglobinopathy which is genetically inherited from parents. The sickle cell gene that codes for the abnormal Hb is a recessive one and is inherited in a simple mendelian fashion. The normal HB is HBA. In the heterozygous state (AS) otherwise called sickle cell trait or carrier state,

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictors of mortality in childhood heart failure (HF) in 2 tertiary hospitals. Methods A 51-month retrospective review of case notes of children with HF admitted into children's emergency rooms of 2 tertiary centers in Southern Nigeria was done. Bio-data and certain sociodemographic variables including mortality were abstracted. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were done to evaluate the predictors of mortality in HF. Results The case notes of 289 children were analyzed, consisting of 153 males (52.9%) and 142 infants (49.1%). Lower respiratory tract infections, 121 (41.9%), were the commonest causes of HF. Twenty-eight children (9.7%) died. In multivariate analyses, only late presentation (P < 0.0001) was an independent predictor of mortality in HF. Conclusion Education of the populace about early presentation to hospital is imperative to prevent unnecessary deaths associated with HF.

No abstract