Background: Reports have shown signifi cant increase in the prevalence of obesity in developing countries. There are limited representative data available from African countries on the trends in childhood obesity, because most public health-and nutrition-related efforts have been focused on under-nutrition. Aims: To determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity using body mass index (BMI) among school adolescents. Design: A cross sectional study involving apparently healthy school students in Sokoto. Materials and Methods: Participating schools and students were selected by a multi-stage random sampling. Anthropometric measurements were done and body mass index derived from the ratio of weight per height squared. Subjects with age and sex-adjusted BMIs of 85 th to <95 th and ≥95 th percentiles of the International Obesity Task Force were defi ned as overweight and obese, respectively. Statistical Analysis: Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.0 software. GraphPad inStat version 3.05 was also used to analyze some variables. Results were expressed as means with standard deviations. P-values <5% were considered signifi cant. Results: The mean BMI of the male subjects was 18.3 ± 2.7kg/m 2 , and 19.3 ± 3.1kg/m 2 for the females. The prevalence of overweight was 3.3%, and that of obesity was 1.4%. Conclusions: The prevalence of overweight and obesity appear to be low in the study area, especially when compared to some recent studies in Africa.

No abstract

No abstract

Background: Babesiosis is a rare emerging opportunistic disease in humans. It is a zoonotic disease caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Babesia and transmitted by Ixodid tick vector. It is often incidentally diagnosed because of its rarity but may be severe or fatal in presentation, particularly in immunocompromised hosts. Aim: To reportthe clinical presentationof a fatal case of human babesiosis in a nine-year old girlwith retroviral disease, in Sokoto, Northern Nigeria. Case Report: A nine-year old girl presented with a month history of unremitting fever, cough and weight loss, There was no history of contact with someone with chronic cough and no diarrhoea. She was diagnosed to have retroviral disease (RVD) at age of three (3) years consequent to her mother’s positive test but only the mother was on antiretroviral treatment, due to the claim that the child had remained healthy. Review of her blood film during third week of admission revealed characteristic tetrads (maltese-cross formation) pathognomonic of babesial infection. She was started on anti-babesial treatment with quinine and clindamycin. She succumbed to the illness within second week of anti-babesial treatment. Conclusion: This report suggested that babesiosis should be a high index of suspicion especially in immunocompromised patients with persistent fever.

No abstract