Background. Hepatitis E virus infection is an emerging disease with varied courses in pregnancy. There is a dearth of statistics among pregnant women. Aim. To evaluate the prevalence, associated factors, and pregnancy outcome in women that tested positive for hepatitis E virus (HEV) antibodies in pregnancy. Research Methods. This was a cross-sectional study conducted among pregnant women at a teaching hospital in Nigeria. Relevant information was collected using a structured questionnaire. Blood was collected from each of the participants, and the serum was used to determine the presence of hepatitis E immunoglobulin M (IgM) and G (IgG). The data were analysed using SPSS version 23. Associations between variables were determined at a p value of <0.05. Results. A total of 200 pregnant women participated in this study. The prevalence of HEV infection among pregnant women was 28.00% (56/200). The mean age was 30.11 ± 5.88. Hepatitis E infection was significantly associated with age ( p value = 0.028), method of faecal disposal ( p value = 0.043), and source of drinking water ( p value = 0.039). A total of 9/200 (4.50%) stillbirths were recorded with 3/9 (33.33%) in women that tested positive for HEV antibodies. About 4/200(2.00%) miscarriages were recorded, and 2/4 (50.00%) were in women that tested positive for HEV antibodies. Hepatitis E infection was not significantly associated with perinatal outcome ( p value = 0.45). Only 1/56 (0.50%) maternal death was recorded among women that tested positive to hepatitis E, and none was recorded among those that tested negative to hepatitis E antibodies. Conclusion. There was a significant statistical association between HEV infection and age, method of faecal disposal, and source of drinking water. This underscores the importance of the provision of clean water and safe faecal disposal. Hepatitis E virus infection did not significantly affect the foetal and maternal outcomes.

Background: Globally, acute watery diarrhea (AWD) is a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality. It is the fourth leading cause of death in children contributing as high as 11% of all childhood deaths. In Nigeria, AWD causes 240,106 under five deaths per year despite the interventions aimed at preventing diarrhoea disease.  Objective: This work was to determine the prevalence and patterns of acute watery diarrhoeal admissions among children presenting to Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi, Anambra state, Nigeria. Methods and Materials: This was an observational study. Children aged 6-36 months, admitted for acute watery diarrhea, who met inclusion criteria and whose caregivers gave informed consent. The caregivers of these children were interviewed using interviewer-administered questionnaire. Information obtained included socio-demography (age, gender, social class among others), symptoms of diarrhoea, duration of illness and medications given to these children at home. Data were analyzed using SPSS 21. Results: Of the159 study participants admitted for AWD, 103(65.0%) were males. Those of lower socio-economic class comprised 66.6%(106) while 49(30.6%) and 4(2.8%) belonged to the middle and upper socio-economic classes respectively. A total of 921 inpatients were admitted for the period of the study (January 2017 to October 2017), giving an AWD prevalence of 17.3%(159). The highest number of admissions occurred from January to March 2017, with highest prevalence in March. There is poor utilization of oral rehydration solution (40.3%; 64) with abuse of antibiotics in the home management of diarrhea. Conclusion and recommendations: The result of this study showed that the prevalence of AWD is still unacceptably high. Interventions aimed at prevention (such as promotion of exclusive breastfeeding, health education on hand and environmental hygiene, and inclusion of rota virus and cholera vaccine in our national program on immunisation etc) should be encouraged and strengthened by the policy makers and monitored for proper uptake by the populace. Key words: Prevalence, Acute watery diarrhoea, children, Admissions

No abstract

Background: Gender-based violence (GBV) increases during every type of emergency whether economic crises, conflicts or disease outbreak like in the case of Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and types of GBV among secondary school students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Anambra State, South East, Nigeria.Methods: The study was a cross-sectional study, conducted among 403 secondary school student who were recruited consecutively after consent and assent were gotten. Self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data was analysed using STATA version 16.0. The level of significance for test of association was set at p-value < 0.05Results: The prevalence of GBV was 63.28%, emotional/verbal abuse were the most prevalent type while sexual abuse was the least type (85.5% vs 8.2%). The highest perpetrator of the emotional/verbal abuse were their fellow students (64.8%). The relationship between GBV and impact of abuse was statistically significant for academic performance, alcohol and tobacco intake (p-values: 0.040, 0.010, 0.029 respectively)Conclusion: The prevalence of GBV is high among students during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the emotional/verbal type being the most prevalent type. GBV has an impact on their academic performance and social lives. We therefore recommend that stakeholders should have target programs to address the diverse effects of GBV on students especially with the pandemic.