Background: Tetanus still causes significant morbidity and mortality amongst children in Nigeria despite decades of immunisation with tetanus vaccine. Objectives: To determine the prevalence, case fatality rate and predictors of fatality amongst school age children treated for tetanus at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study of all children aged 4 to 17 years treated for tetanus at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2019. Data was obtained from the case notes and ward registers. Socio-demographic characteristics, presenting complaints, incubation period, onset interval, number of Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus (DPT) vaccine received at infancy, treatment outcome, duration and cost of hospital stay were obtained, entered into a spread sheet and analysed with SPSS version 20. Results are presented in tables and percentages. The level of significance was set at P value <0.05. Results: During the period under review, there were 53 children aged 4 to 17 years treated for tetanus, accounting for 0.3% of the total admission. The mean age was 10.79±3.35 years. There were 33 (62.26%) males and 20 (37.74%) females. Majority 26 (49.06%) of the children were of low socioeconomic class. The commonest 28(52.8%) route of infection was broomstick injury. Majority 32(60.3%) of the children were not immunised in infancy. The mean incubation period was 7.34±4.21 days and the mean onset interval was 8.87±10.44 hours. The two most common symptoms were generalized spasms 49 (21.03%) and trismus 47 (20.17%). Short incubation period (≤4 days) and short onset interval (≤4 hours) were significantly associated with higher death rates (p=0.0002; p=0.012). Patients with short incubation period of ≤4 days and short onset interval of≤ 4 hours are more likely to die (p=0.0002; p=0.012). Conclusion: There was a high tetanus case fatality rate amongst school age children at University of Port Harcourt. Short incubation period and onset interval were associated with higher mortality. Booster doses of TT containing vaccines should be administered to primary and secondary school children in Port Harcourt to curb the menace.
<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Skin disorders can be a significant cause of distress to both children and their care-givers. The scope of prevalent skin disorders differ from one country to the other. Therefore an insight into the occurrence, patterns and distribution of skin disorders in a target group will be beneficial to inform care and provide support that is relevant to that target population. The aim of this study is to determine the skin problems prevalent amongst children that are five years and below managed at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Alakahia, Nigeria.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods: </strong>This was a retrospective cross sectional study of children five years and below that visited the dermatology outpatient clinic at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Alakahia between the period of January 2006 and December 2015.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> There was equal ratio of male to female patients with slight female preponderance. The eleven most common lesions were papular urticaria, atopic dermatitis, scabies, warts, vitiligo, molluscum contagiosum, tinea corporis, impetigo, seborrhoeic dermatitis, pityriasis rosea and tinea capitis.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Skin disorders are common among children under five years. Allergic skin disorders, bacterial, viral and fungal skin infections, skin infestation (scabies) and pigmentary disorders (vitiligo) are major skin manifestations in this study.</p>
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