No abstract

Measles is of particular concern in Nigeria because of the high fatality rate, and high morbidity rate, particularly in young children. Measles and its complications are a common reason for hospitalization, indicating very low immunization coverage. This study was carried out to elucidate the contributing factors from attitudes, beliefs and practices of mothers towards measles and its vaccination. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Konduga Local Government Area. One per cent of the 500 mothers interviewed believed that measles is prevented by immunization, 16% that it is contagious or due to an infectious agent, 26% that it is caused by evil spirits, witchcraft and heat, and 25% had never heard of measles immunization. Twenty-seven per cent said they did not believe immunization was effective and 4% were not allowed to go for immunization by their husbands. Of those mothers whose children had developed measles, only 31% had been treated in formal health facilities. These results indicate an unfavourable attitude and practice by mothers in relation to measles and measles vaccination. There is the need for an intensive health education campaign to improve this state of affairs and to reduce the morbidity and mortality from measles.

Background: Pelvic inflammatory disease refers to any infection in the female lower reproductive tract that spreads to the upper reproductive tract. The disease comprises a spectrum of inflammatory disorders of the upper female genital tract, including any combination of endometritis, salpingitis, tubo-ovarian abscess and pelvic peritonitis.

Laboratory screening for the diagnosis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in blood donors currently consists of testing for hepatitis B surface (HBsAg) antigen alone. The prevalence of isolated anti-HBc-IgM is not yet known in the semi arid region of Nigeria. The major objective of this study was to determine the sero-prevalence of antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc-IgM) and other infectious agent markers; HBsAg, HCV, HIV and Syphilis among blood donors in the North Eastern region of Nigeria. In a cross sectional study from October 2010 to January 2011, 266 blood donors were tested for the infectious disease markers using standard ELISA procedures as contained in the manufacturer's standard operating procedures. The prevalence of various infectious markers obtained were as follows: HBsAg (8.6%); anti-HCV (1.5%); HIV (2.6%) and anti-HBc-IgM(18.4%). There was a zero percent prevalence of Syphilis in this donor population. The proportion of isolated anti- HBc-IgM antibody obtained was 18.1%. Performance indices for HBsAg were as follows: Sensitivity (10.2%), specificity (91.7%), positive predictive value (PPV) (21.7%), Negative predictive value (81.9%), and efficiency (76.7%). The prevalence of anti-HBc- IgM antibody was higher among first time blood donors (21.4%), and in some ethnic groups. There is a high prevalence of isolated anti-HBc-IgM antibody among blood donors in Maiduguri. The sensitivity of HBsAg was found to be very low and as such many recent HBV infections may be missed during pre-transfusion screening. The use of anti-HBc-IgM screening as a mandatory pre-transfusion screening test is hereby advocated.

Syncope is a common manifestation of both hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome. The most common arrhythmia in HCM is ventricular tachycardia (VT) and atrial fibrillation (AF). While preexcitation provides the substrate for reentry and supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), AF is more common in patients with preexcitation than the general population. Concurrence of HCM and WPW has been reported in many cases, but whether the prognosis or severity of arrhythmia is different compared to the individual disorders remains unsettled. We report a case of HCM and Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome in a 28-year-old male Nigerian soldier presenting with recurrent syncope and lichen planus.