Background:Birth asphyxia is one of the commonest causes of neonatal morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Together with prematurity and neonatal sepsis, they account for over 80% of neonatal deaths.Aim:To determine the incidence and mortality rate of birth asphyxia in Warri Niger Delta of Nigeria.Materials and Method:Recovery of case notes of all the newborn babies seen from January 2000 to December 2007 at Central Hospital Warri and GN children’s Clinic, Warri, was undertaken. They were analyzed and those with birth asphyxia were further analyzed, noting the causes, severity of asphyxia, sex of the babies, management given.Results:A total of 864 out of 26,000 neonates seen within this period had birth asphyxia. 525 (28/1000 live births) had mild asphyxia while 32% were severely asphyxiated. 61.5% of the asphyxiated were born at maternities, churches or delivered by traditional birth attendants or at home. Prolonged labour was the commonest cause of asphyxia and asphyxia was more in neonates from unbooked patients.Conclusion:The incidence of bith asphyxia in Warri is 28/1000. Majority of patients are from prolonged labour and delivery at unrecognized centres. Health education will dratically reduce the burden of asphyxia neanatorum as unsubtanciated religous beliefs have done a great havoc.

A three-year retrospective study was conducted to determine the incidence, pattern of presentation and other clinical and biochemical features as well as outcome of treatment of patients admitted with acute glomerulonephritis at the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara and GN Children's Clinic, Warri. The case notes of all the children who presented with renal diseases from January 2010 to December 2012 were retrieved and those with acute glomerulonephritis were analyzed. A total of 20 patients (13 male and seven female) with acute glomerulonephritis were seen during the three-year period under review. Twelve patients (60%) were from the low socioeconomic class, six (30%) from the middle class and only two (10%) were from the high-income group. The presentation of the illness was most common between October and January. The age range of the patients was three to 13 years, with an average age of eight years. Seventeen (85%) of the patients were in the school-going age group (>5 years to 10 years). The most common symptom/sign noted was anemia in 90% of the patients, followed by oliguria/anuria and edema seen in 80% of the patients. Seventy percent of the patients had cola-colored urine, while 55% had hypertension. Some patients gave a history suggestive of previous streptococcal infection. More patients had sore throat (25%) than skin infection (10%). All the patients had proteinuria, while 90% had hematuria. The most common complication was acute kidney injury, seen in eight (40%) of the patients, followed by hypertensive encephalopathy, which occurred in three (15%) patients. Most patients (60%) were hospitalized for one to two weeks. The outcome of the management of these patients showed 14 (70%) of the patients recovered fully while three (15%) had persistent hematuria and two (10%) had persistent proteinuria. Ninety-five percent of the patients recovered from the acute illness and one patient (5%), a boy aged nine years old, died.

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.