No abstract

A study was carried out on patients clinically diagnosed of malaria or typhoid or both, at Nnewi Anambra State, Nigeria, to investigate the level of association between malaria and typhoid fever infections. The stool culture was used as an additional diagnostic test for typho d fever. The study indicated that out of 256 patients, 29(14.36 %) were diagnosed with concurrent malaria and typhoid fever based on bacterio og cal method as compared to 147 (57.42 %) base on serological method. Plasmod um falciparum was the only Plasmodium species isolated. Furthermore, 42.59 % were l kely to have been falsely diagnosed of having concurrent malaria and typhoid fever using serology. Our study indicated that out of 202 (78.90 %) ma aria positive patients, 13(6.44 %); 12(5 94 %) and 3(1.49 %) had concurrent malaria co-existing with Salmonella typhi, S. paratyhpi and S. typhimurium respectively. Malaria was positively associated with typhoid fever (P < 0.05) being more pronounced using serological diagnosis. The difference in the P asmodium falciprum parasteamia and Salmonella antibody titre was only significant using Widal test. Diagnosis of typhoid fever in malaria positive patients using Widal test solely may lead to misleading and unreliable results. i l i i i l .

In vivo rabbit ileal loops were prepared and inoculated with purified cholera enterotoxin (CT). After a lag period of about 1 h there was persistent stimulation of water and electrolyte secretion and a transient stimulation of mucus secretion into the luminal fluid. Repeated intraluminal inoculation of prostaglandin E₁ (PGE₁) caused a pattern of water, electrolyte and mucus secretion which was qualitatively the same as that following CT, except that no lag period was observed. Doses of the protein synthesis inhibitor, cycloheximide, the microtubule disrupter, colchicine, and the microfilament disrupter, cytochalasin B, were found that inhibited CT-induced mucus secretion but not water and electrolyte secretion. The carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, acetazolamide, inhibited CT-induced water and electrolyte secretion without inhibiting the mucus secreted over a 5-hour test period. Thus a variety of agents can be used to demonstrate a separation of intestinal water and electrolyte secretion from mucus secretion. The prostaglandin synthesis inhibitor, indomethacin, also inhibited CT-induced water, electrolyte and mucus secretion, but no dose of this agent was found that completely separated the water and electrolyte from the mucus secretion.

The negative impact of gas flaring on the environment cannot be overemphasised. This study assessed the effect of gas flaring on the physicochemical properties and heavy metal contents in soils of Ebocha gas flaring site in Rivers State. It involved the assessment of various distances from gas flaring point to 200 meters away (50 m, 100 m, 150 m, and 200 m) which represents the extent of gas flared pollution on soils to determine the physicochemical properties and heavy metal load. The gas flaring significantly decreased soil organic carbon and calcium content when compared with non-gas flaring polluted soils. Soil acidity increased, soil exchangeable ions decreased. N, P and K were altered in gas flared soils when compared to the controls. There were detrimental effects on soils physicochemical properties. Heavy metals observed were Cd (Cadmium), Ni (Nickel), As (Arsenic), Cr (Chromium), while Pb (Lead) was not detected. The concentration of heavy metals in gas flared soils decreases down soil depth from 0-15 cm to 45-60 cm respectively. The gas flaring extremely caused the acidic nature of gas flared soils. Coefficient of variation (CV) in percentage shows significant increase in acidic nature of the gas flared soils when compared with the control soils.

No abstract