The COVID-19 vaccination campaign is an ongoing worldwide effort to vaccinate large numbers of people against COVID-19 in order to ensure protection from the disease, control the rate of infection, reduce severe outcomes, and get back to normal life. Most African countries had a delay in the initiation of their COVID-19 vaccine national rollout compared to other regions in the world, and the goal of the immunization exercise in the continent is to vaccinate over 60% of the African population to attain herd immunity. Over the years, vaccination programmes are usually faced with challenges in Africa because of numerous factors. So far, some of the major challenges threatening the success of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in most African countries includes the slow onset of the vaccination exercise, limited funds, concerns around vaccine safety and uncertainties, storage requirements and regulatory hurdles for vaccines, limited shelf life of COVID-19 vaccines, inability to access vulnerable communities in a timely fashion, problems around the use of different vaccines, and wars and conflicts. The solutions and other imperative recommendations to these challenges were provided so as to optimize the vaccination programme and to achieve an appreciable success in the COVID-19 vaccination programme on the continent. In conclusion, a holistic and timely planning, fast execution of plans, rigorous community involvement, and a robust multi-sectoral partnership will ensure a successful COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Africa.
The aim of this review is to give a synopsis on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with major focus on the preventive measures. Ever since the influenza pandemic of 1918, and the second world war of (1939)(1940)(1941)(1942)(1943)(1944)(1945), the world has not been faced with a common problem in recent memory like the COVID-19 pandemic. The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic is caused by infection with a viral pathogen, the nascent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and is characterized by respiratory failure in severe cases. The communicability period of COVID-19 varies, but it is usually between 2-14 days, and the major signs and symptoms of COVID-19 are high temperature (fever), severe and consistent cough, and serious breathing problems in severe cases, however, complications result in the serious inflammation of the lungs, and organ malfunction occurs in patients with comorbidities and health conditions especially diabetes, heart disease and obesity. With high virulence and contagious nature of SARS-CoV-2, over 11.4 million confirmed cases and over 533,780 deaths have occurred as a result of COVID-19 globally, with over 6.1 million recoveries as of 6 th July 2020. Presently, there is no known cure for COVID-19, however, remdesivir has been approved for emergency use for the treatment of COVID-19 patients by the Food and Drug Administration, a United States federal regulatory body (FDA), while various clinical trial treatments and vaccines are being tried globally. The world is faced with containing the spread of the infection, and this review revealed that thorough hand washing with antiseptic soap and running water and usage of alcohol hand sanitizer, frequent surfaces cleaning, strict adherence to social distancing, regular respiratory hygiene, wearing of protective face masks, frequent testing, self-isolation, quarantine and rigorous contact tracing will help to prevent further spread, and control the transmission of the viral pathogen. It is however strongly recommended that only the strict compliance to the mitigative and preventive measures provided above will yield the desired results in the prevention, management and control of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this systematic review, we explored the effects of physical activity, diet, and lifestyle on the prevention of diabetes mellitus in Nigeria. Diabetes is an autoimmune disease which occurs when the body does not produce or respond properly to insulin, a hormone essential for daily life. Diabetes is an incurable disease, which has no racial, social, or sex barrier. The risk factors include a poor diet, lack of physical activity, obesity, and an unhealthy lifestyle. About 100 million people in the United States have diabetes mellitus, and the total economic costs of diabetes exceed USD 132 billion a year. Diabetes accounts for 1 of every 10th USD spent on health care in the United States, and an estimated 48 million Americans may develop diabetes by 2050. However, it is estimated that in 90% of the patients with type 2 diabetes the disease could be prevented if people adopted a healthy lifestyle, including regular physical activity, a moderate-good diet, and modest weight. Because of the deleterious health consequences which include blindness; kidney damage; cardiovascular disease; and reduced life span, as well as high treatment costs, prevention of the disease in Nigeria, where you are confronted with a poor health care system, poverty, and ignorance, but also have ample opportunities for physical activity and rich local nutrients to supply an ideal diet, is a viable option. Consequent upon this, the paper recommends, among others, that available local resources be used for this purpose.
Aim: This study examined the relationship between alcohol use and patterns of blood pressure changes due to examination stress among academic staff at the Adekunle Ajasin University (AAUA).Methods: It involved using concurrent mixed methods with quantitative and qualitative approaches. Both the questionnaire and the blood pressure and pulse rate reading were used as instruments in data collection. The examined population includes all academic staff of AAUA. Multistage sampling techniques were used to select participants for the study. In stage one, a simple random sampling technique was used to select five faculties of the university. In stage two, systematic sampling techniques were used to select participants for the study; academic staff in every 5th academic staff office at the selected faculties were selected as a sample frame. Two instruments were used in gathering information for this study. The instruments were a self-constructed questionnaire and an electronic sphygmomanometer. Data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation at alpha level of 0.05.Results: Findings revealed that there is a significant difference in the pattern of blood pressure before – F (3, 46) = 4.260, P < 0.05; during – F (3, 46) = 3.570, P < 0.05; and after the examination period – F (3, 46) = 3.131, P < 0.05, based on the respondents’ level of alcohol intake.Conclusions: It is recommended that academic staff should be educated on the detrimental health consequences of consuming alcohol to avoid high blood pressure before, during and after the examination period.
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