This study found a relatively high incidence of severe rotavirus-associated diarrhea disease in Nigeria and infants were the most affected. It highlights the urgent need for introduction of rotavirus vaccine into the national immunization program and the need to adequately equip health facilities to enable them administer intravenous fluids to severe diarrhea patients to reduce morbidity and mortality.

Background:Morbidity and mortality from childhood illnesses has remained a major point of interest globally. Malaria, respiratory tract infection and diarrheal diseases are the leading causes of childhood morbidity and mortality.Aim:The aim of the following study is to determine the pattern of morbidity and mortality of children seen at the children emergency room of a tertiary hospital, Federal Medical Center in Asaba, Nigeria.Subjects and Methods:A descriptive study of post-neonatal childhood admissions over a 5 year period (January 2007-December 2011) was undertaken. Information obtained included age, gender, diagnosis, month of admission and outcome. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the demographic characteristics of the patients and associations with outcome variables.Results:A total of 3,830 children with aged ranges between 1 month and 180 months were admitted within this period of study from January 2007 to December 2011: 2,189 males (57.2%, 2189/3830) and 1,641 (42.8%, 1641/3830) females. More than 70% (2912/3830) were under 5 years of age. The common indications for admission were malaria (30.3%, 1159/3830), diarrheal diseases (20.4%, 780/3830), respiratory tract infections (RTIs) (19.0%, 728/3830) and sepsis (4.4%, 168/3830). There were 221 (5.8%, 221/3830) deaths and more deaths were recorded in children <12 months of age, P < 0.01. Major causes of death were complicated malaria (24.4%, 54/221), sepsis (19.9%, 44/221), diarrheal diseases (18.1%, 40/221) and RTIs (7.7%, 17/221).Conclusion:Preventable infections are the major causes of morbidity and mortality in CHER and children <5 years of age are commonly affected.

BackgroundAccurate rapid diagnosis is one of the important steps in the effort to reduce morbidity and mortality of malaria. Blood-specific malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are currently in use but other body fluid specific diagnostic test kits are being developed. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the performance characteristics of a one-step Urine Malaria Test™ (UMT) dipstick in detecting Plasmodium falciparum HRP2, a poly-histidine antigen in urine of febrile patients for malaria diagnosis.MethodsThis was an observational study in which a urine-based malaria test kit was used in malaria diagnosis in a normal field setting. Two hundred and three individuals who presented with fever (≥37.5°C) at seven outpatient clinics in Enugu State during periods of high and low transmission seasons in Southeastern Nigeria were enrolled. Matched samples of urine and blood of consecutively enrolled subjects were tested with UMT and blood smear microscopy.ResultsWith the blood smear microscopy as standard, the disease prevalence was 41.2% and sensitivity for the UMT was 83.75% (CI: 73.81 to 91.95%, Kappa 0.665, p =0.001). The UMT had an LLD of 120 parasites/μl but the sensitivity at parasite density less than ≤200 parasites/μl was 50% and 89.71% at density ≥201 parasites/μl with specificity of 83.48%. The positive and negative predictive values were 77.91% and 88.07%, respectively.ConclusionThe UMT showed moderate level of sensitivity compared with blood smear microscopy. The test kit requires further improvement on its sensitivity in order to be deployable for field use in malaria endemic regions.

Hematological abnormalities and malnutrition occur in HIV positive children.

CKD in children poses myriad of challenges in management in our setting with late presentation of patients and limited resources being prominent. The majority of patients could not access and sustain RRT and the outcome continues to be daunting.