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The proliferation of boreholes dug by individuals, public and private entities in a bid to overcome the problem of water shortage has caused various communities in Owerri West, southeastern Nigeria to depend on borehole water as readily available water for drinking and domestic purposes. Unfortunately, the water is not treated before it is used for drinking and there is no surveillance of bacteria in the water to ascertain its safety. In consideration of this fact, a study was conducted to assess the bacteriological quality of borehole water in some communities in the area. Borehole water samples were aseptically collected from four communities. The bacteriological assessment was carried out using standard microbiological methods involving determination of total coliform count, total faecal coliform count and total heterotrophic bacterial count. The total coliform counts of the water samples ranged from 1.3x102 to 1.3x104 CFUmL-1 while the total faecal coliform and total heterotrophic bacterial counts ranged from 1.3x102 to 5.8x104 CFUmL-1 and 1.1x102 to 8.7x104 CFUmL-1 respectively. The organisms isolated from the borehole water samples included Shigella sp, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus sp, Klebsiella sp and Escherichia coli. The total bacteria counts exceed the limit set by the World Health Organization for drinking and domestic purposes. Moreover, the pathogenic organisms isolated from the water samples could cause serious health problems in humans. Hence, the borehole water should be treated properly before use and other preventive approaches should be adopted to minimize possible health risks associated with the use of the borehole water.

This study was undertaken to assess the effect of total excusive breast feeding on the prevalence of malaria among children, 0-2 years of age. A simple random sampling method was used to select 176 nursing mothers, having children aged 0-2 years during consultation hours at the pediatric outpatient ward of the Federal Medical Center, Owerri, Nigeria. A well-structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used to source information from the nursing mothers that provided answers to the questions on socio demographic characteristics and breast feeding practices. Blood samples also were collected from the concerned children, stained with Giemsa and Leishman for both thick and thin film preparations respectively, and examined under the oil immersion microscopy for malaria parasites. The results showed that 100% of the mothers had good knowledge of breast feeding, but their practice of total exclusive breast feeding was low (22.7%). Out of 40 exclusively breast-fed children examined in the study, only 4(10.0%) were infected with malaria, while out of the 136 non-exclusively breast-fed children, 50(36.8%) had malaria. The prevalence of malaria was also lowest (6.7%) among the exclusively breast-fed children in the age group 0-6 months. Total exclusive breast feeding practice should be sustained and recommended to all nursing mothers in order to gain from its numerous and indispensable benefits including reduction in the prevalence of malaria among children.

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