No abstract

The effect of prophylaxis with Cotrimoxazole (CTX) against malaria parasitaemia and other pregnancy outcomes among HIV-infected pregnant women in Jos was investigated. Peripheral blood from study women was used to prepare thin and thick blood smears for the identification and estimation of malaria parasitaemia as well as immunological and haematological investigations. Sulfadoxine pyrimethamine (SP) was used as control, being the standard used for prophylaxis against malaria in pregnant women. Result shows that Prevalence of malaria infection was reduced from 34.1-7.2% and from 25-10% among group A and B respectively. Mean parasitaemia was reduced from 1984.76 asp/µ to 1000.00 asp/µl and from 1960.38 asp/µ to 1118.18 asp/µ for CTX an SP respectively. Mean packed cell volume (PCV) was reduced from 33.09-33.02% with CTX and from 33.11-32.90% with SP. Mean CD4+ count increased from 223.55 cells/µl to 300.54 cells/µl with CTX but decreased from 570 cells/µl to 536.4 cells/µl with SP. Prophylaxis with CTX is associated with 89% reduction in parasitaemia, with immunological but no haematological benefits, while prophylaxis with standard Sp is associated with 76% reduction in malaria parasitaemia with neither immunological nor haematological benefits. There was no statistical difference between the two drugs throughout the study. The use of cotrimoxazole for antimalarial prophylaxis among HIV-infected pregnant women is strongly supported but with close monitoring of their PCV so as to detect and treat any possible anaemia.

This study investigated the In vitro spasmolytic and In vivo anti-diarrhoeal effects of Garcinia kola seed extract/fractions. Extraction was done by maceration in 70% methanol, serially partitioned in ethyl acetate and n-hexane. Qualitative phytochemical screening was carried out on the crude extract/fractions. The In vitro spasmolytic effect of the extract and fractions at different concentrations (0.5×103, 0.2×103,0.1×103, 0.6×102 mg/ml) were investigated against spontaneous and acetylcholine-induced contractions in isolated rabbit jejunum as well as histamine-induced contractions using isolated guinea pig ileum. The In vivo anti-diarrhoeal effect of the extract was evaluated using three diarrhoeal models: castor oil-induced diarrhoea, charcoal meal gastrointestinal transit time and castor oil-induced enteropooling. In each model, 25 mice were randomly divided into five groups of 5 mice each. Group I served as the untreated control, while group II was a positive control. Groups III-V were administered 125, 250 and 500 mg/kg of the crude methanol extract, respectively. The crude extract, ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions at 0.5×103 mg/ml respectively exhibited 14.4%, 12.9% and 12.2% spasmolytic activities against acetylcholine-induced rabbit jejunum contractions. Histamine-induced guinea pig ileum contractions were inhibited by crude extract (6.2%), ethyl acetate (6.2%), aqueous fraction (7.2%) at 0.6×102 mg/ml. For castor oil-induced diarrhoea, the crude extract at 500 mg/kg produced a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in the diarrhoeal index and faecal weight with a percentage inhibition of 70.4% compared with controls. Similarly, the crude extract (500 mg/kg) significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the charcoal meal gastrointestinal transit time with a percentage inhibition of 33.9% and elicited significant (p < 0.05) intraluminal fluid reduction (9.1%) in castor oil-induced enter pooling test when compared with the untreated group. In conclusion, the anti-motility and anti-secretory activities of the crude extract were attributed to the phytochemical constituents present.