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The coronavirus outbreak is the most notable world crisis since the Second World War. The pandemic that originated from Wuhan, China in late 2019 has affected all the nations of the world and triggered a global economic crisis whose impact will be felt for years to come. This necessitates the need to monitor and predict COVID-19 prevalence for adequate control. The linear regression models are prominent tools in predicting the impact of certain factors on COVID-19 outbreak and taking the necessary measures to respond to this crisis. The data was extracted from the NCDC website and spanned from March 31, 2020 to May 29, 2020. In this study, we adopted the ordinary least squares estimator to measure the impact of travelling history and contacts on the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria and made a prediction. The model was conducted before and after travel restriction was enforced by the Federal government of Nigeria. The fitted model fitted well to the dataset and was free of any violation based on the diagnostic checks conducted. The results show that the government made a right decision in enforcing travelling restriction because we observed that travelling history and contacts made increases the chances of people being infected with COVID-19 by 85% and 88% respectively. This prediction of COVID-19 shows that the government should ensure that most travelling agency should have better precautions and preparations in place before re-opening.

Ethno-medicinal study was conducted to document medicinal plants used    by    the local people of Feni district. The targets of the study were to identify and document plant species used for treatment of various ailments and to find out the level of consensus or agreement between informants regarding the uses of plants for particular disease categories. The study has been resulted in recording of 115 medicinal plant species with 216 formularies to treat 69 ailments. These species belongs to 5 5 families. Such data indicated that the study area has plenty of medicinal plants with their diversity of health care uses. Ailment category cut and wounds attained highest Fic value. Species used for this purpose are Mikania cordata, and Cynodon dactylon which were cited by many informants. Second highest Fic value was found in case of Dysentery and diarrhoea. Medicinal plants used for this purpose are Litsea glutinosa, Dalbergia sissu, Mangifera indica, Scoparia dulcis, Holarrhena antidysenterica, Stephania harnandifolia and Centella asiatica those were cited by a good number of informants. Since the Fic values attained highest, such plants could be recommended for further phytochemical study to isolate compounds responsible for the remedy of ailment category cut and wounds and diarrhoea and dysentery. In the present survey,    1   6 species has attained 100% FI values. This FI values means that the informants have a tendency to rely on one specific plant species for treating one certain ailment than several ailments. The study asserted that such species need to be protected in the study area to sustain traditional medicinal plants and culture. Finally, a number of threats to the medicinal plants have been identified and some measures for conservation have been suggested. Asiat. Soc. Bangladesh, Sci. 41(2): 203-223, December 2015

Consensus of the people’s healthcare knowledge of ethno-medicinal plants in and around Lawachara national park was conducted from December 2014 to November 2015. The main aim of the study was to record and document plants species used for the treatment of various ailments and to find out level of consensus and agreement between informants regarding uses of plant for particular ailment categories. Data of medicinal uses of plants were recorded through semi-structured interviews, key informant discussions and informal conversations with local and ethnic people including herbal practitioners. A total of 124 medicinal plant species with 245 formularies to treat 53 ailments were recorded. For each species scientific name, local name, family, part used, ailments to be treated and mode of treatment are presented. Leaf is the dominant part used followed by fruit, root and rhizome, whole plant, seed, stem, bark, petiole, bulb, peduncle, latex and flower. In the documented 124 species, herbs were represented by 43%, trees by 31%, shrubs by 15% and climbers by 11% species. Oral consumption is the main mode of treatment in the study area and followed by external application. Maximum formularies were found in the six ailment groups including gastrointestinal complain, diarrhoea and dysentery, fever and cough, dermatitis, jaundice and impotence. According to the local people most of the plants (59%) were harvested from the park vegetation and minimum (41%) harvested from cultivated source. Maximum consensus values (Factor Informants Consensus (Fic) values more than 0.80) were obtained in case of cut and wounds and followed by Jaundice, Respiratory related ailments, Diabetes, Diarrhoea and dysentery, Anthelmintic, Gastrointestinal complain, Impotence, Dermatitis and High blood pressure. Chromolaena odoratum, Cericoides campanulata, Oroxylum indicum, Cuscuta reflexa, Averrhoa carambola, Cajanus cajan, Justicia adhatoda and Citrus aurantifolia showed 100% Fidelity values (Fl). Litsea glutinosa, Mikania cordata, Ocimum sanctum and Azadirachta indica were scored maximum Percent of Respondents knowledge values (PRK). It is recommended that species which showed high Fic, Fl and PRK values could be used for further ethno-lead phytochemical analysis to investigate active compounds to discover drugs from plants. Finally, a number of threats to medicinal plants were identified and some measures for conservation are also suggested. Asiat. Soc. Bangladesh, Sci. 43(1): 101-123, June 2017