International Journal of TROPICAL DISEASE & Health

Covid-19 pandemic has affected the whole word medically, economically and emotionally. It is being considered as the biggest pandemic after the Spanish flu, with very high degree of morbidity and mortality in those with complications. The diagnostic and treatment criteria of this novel virus are being updated frequently as nothing much is known about it. This highlights the importance of hematology lab parameters in Covid diagnosis and prediction of disease progression. Multiple studies on complete blood counts and it’s derived parameters have been conducted in patients of Covid-19 however limited literature is available which discusses the morphology of circulating blood cells in Covid-19 cases. This short communication is presented with the purpose of highlighting the peripheral blood findings of 50 lab confirmed Covid-19 cases admitted at Super Specialty Pediatric Hospital and Post Graduate Teaching Hospital, NOIDA.

Background/Aim: Overall patients’ satisfaction with services provided in a hospital is an objective of care, and also a desired outcome. Dissatisfied patients are more likely not to comply with prescriptions, follow-up appointments, or further use the health facility. Services provided in public health facilities in Nigeria have been perceived by both patients and health care providers as being poor. Teaching hospitals in Nigeria are the apex referral centers, with the General Outpatient Department (GOPD) being the first unit that patients mostly go to first. Waiting time and attitude of health workers are key contributors to overall patients’ satisfaction. The objective of this study is to assess patients’ satisfaction with waiting time, and attitude of health workers in the GOPD of a Teaching hospital in Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional study, conducted over three months in 2017 at the GOPD of Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. Structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire was used. Exit interview was conducted on randomly selected 13 patients as they were leaving the GOPD Pharmacy unit on Tuesdays and Thursdays of every week, until 313 respondents were interviewed.

Results: A total of 313 patients were interviewed, 131 (41.9%) males and 182 (58.1%) females. Analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0, and the results were expressed as percentages. Patients’ satisfaction score for the various items studied were found to be 53.7% for waiting time, 74.4% for attitude of Records staff, 78.3% for nurses, 71.9% for doctors, 70.6% for time spent with doctor, 72.5% with doctor's explanation and 40.6% with privacy.

Conclusions: Overall satisfaction with services rendered at the GOPD was 60.4%. Identifying and implementing interventions that will enhance patients satisfaction, shall improve health facility utilization.

This study is conducted to determine the population density of mosquitoes in three selected area (Kofar Taramniya, Mabera and Bello Way) in Sokoto metropolis. To identified and count the population of mosquito, different breeding sites were investigated for the preferences of mosquitoes. Mosquito larvae were collected using dipper, ladle spoon from drainages, stagnant water, gutters, open wells, local pots, water tanks and cattle sheds. A total population of 4,764 mosquito larvae were collected and identified From the three (3) selected areas larvae and pupae were encounters in abundance. In Mabera area, a total of 1799 (37.7%) larvae are collected in which 1199 (45.8%) belonging to Anopheles genera and 600 (27.9%) belong to culex genera. In kofar Taramniya a total of 1649 (34.6%) larvae are collected in which 1000 (38.2%) belong to Anopheles genera and 649 (30.2%) belong to culex genera, in Bello Way, A total of 1317 (27.5%) larvae were collected, 417 (15.9%) belong to Anopheles genera and 900 (41.9%) belong to culex genera. Statistical analysis conducted indicated a significant difference (p<0.05) between the three collections. Mosquitoes encountered belong to two genera of Anopheles and Culex. The predominant genus was Anopheles with a total of 2,615 larvae while Culex has a total of 2149 larvae in all the three study areas. Considering the medical importance of mosquitoes, the information provided from this study will serve as a basis for understanding the implication of mosquitoes nuisance and provide effective control strategies against the vector and to reduce mosquitoes born disease.

Purpose: To explore the prevention and control strategies and effects of COVID-19 in Shenmu City Hospital, so as to provide basis for the prevention and control of COVID-19 in Shenmu City.

Methods: Retrospective analysis and review of our hospital after the outbreak of COVID-19 prevention and control program, response measures and management procedures and other aspects of the deployment.

Results: In the 86 days up to April 15, 2020, there were 7,843 pre-diagnosis and triage patients, among which 707 were high-risk group, 3,140 were general population and 3,996 were key population. 992 patients were treated in COVID-19 clinics, 2 suspected cases were reported and 89 were kept under observation. 5, 351 visits in general fever clinics; 89 cases were hospitalized in isolation ward, including 2 suspected cases. COVID-19 was discharged after improvement.

Conclusion: Initial progress has been made in epidemic prevention and control. COVID-19 has not been reported in the whole city. It shows that effective prevention and control strategies are of great significance for achieving the goal of "three zeros" (zero infection, zero spread and zero death), and are worth learning and promoting.

Background: HPV infection is the most common STI in sexually active adolescents. It has been implicated in majority of cases of cervical cancers. HPV is preventable. Potent Vaccines are available.

Objective: This study assessed what adolescents know about HPV infection and HPV vaccination, their attitude and uptake of HPV vaccine. This was also to raise awareness and obtain data that will be useful in identifying where to intervene to improve coverage.

Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study carried out in Rivers State, Nigeria. Study tool was a semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire. Multi-stage sampling method was used to recruit adolescent girls from secondary schools.

Results: 445 in-school adolescent girls aged 9 to 19 years participated. Mean age was 13.4 SD = ±2.2 years. 36.6% and 36.8% had heard of HPV infection and HPV vaccine respectively. Only 3.1% of the participants knew HPV could be prevented through vaccination. 71.7% indicated willingness to obtain the vaccine. Only 3.6% self reported to have received at least one dose of the vaccine at the time of the survey. Uptake of HPV vaccine (P=0.00), willingness to be vaccinated (P=0.005) highest among adolescents that had heard of HPV vaccine and those who perceived themselves to be at risk for HPV infection (P=0.005). Insufficient health information, cost of HPV vaccines identified as key barriers to vaccines utilization.

Conclusion: Notwithstanding the low level of knowledge about HPV infection and HPV vaccines willingness to be vaccinated was high. Our study shows that uptake of vaccination is low in our locality.

Aim: The health seeking behavior in the treatment of childhood malaria was assessed to investigate influence of educational level and occupation of caregivers on choice of health services.

Methodology: Between September, 2005 and January, 2008 in two Local Government Areas of Imo State, Nigeria. A total of 6259 respondents were interviewed through household survey of caregivers domiciled in the communities in the study area.

Results: Result showed the major malaria management practices in the study area to include; use of herbs from local healers, buying of over the counter anti-malarials from pharmacies and attendance to hospitals/clinics. The result also revealed that majority (35.4%) of respondents went to pharmacies for the treatment of their children while 27.1% of respondents were self-medicating. Some (9.8%) of the caregivers used herbs, while 3.7% visited both herbalists and hospitals. The malaria management practices differed significantly (P<.05) among occupational groups and educational levels.

Conclusion: There should therefore be intensive and sustained public health education aimed at improving attitudes of care givers towards the use of health facilities for timely treatment of childhood malaria.

Objective: This study aimed to determine the Prevalence and Risk Factors for Placental Malaria and its associated effects on Pregnancy Outcome among Pregnant Women in Mawenzi Regional Referral Hospital in Kilimanjaro Region.

Methodology: This was a hospital based cross-sectional study. We derived our study sample from previous survey of 700 pregnant women who attended labor ward at MRRH between 2018- 2019 in which we obtained study subjects by random sampling. The study included 350 subjects. We extracted data from the dataset using data extraction sheet and was analyzed using IBM SPSS software version 24. Chi–square was performed and we accepted an error of 5% level P<0.05 was the cut off for statistical significance.

Results: The prevalence of PM was 7.1% among the pregnant women in the study area. Primigravida had more cases of PM (11%) as compared to multigravida (2.7%). Pregnant women who had gestation age below 37 weeks attributed more cases of PM (9.6%) as compared to 6.7% of PM infections in pregnant women at gestation age of 37 weeks and above. Low birth-weight was estimated at 32% of all subjects who were identified with PM as compared to 6.2% of subjects without placental malaria and their difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). Gestational age of less than 37 weeks was associated with LBW with proportion of 21% among women with PM and it has strong statistical significance of P (<0.001). The use of bed nets was associated with PM among the non-user at 28% P (<0.001).

Conclusion: PM is still a major public health problem in low malaria endemic areas and the groups at risk are women who are Primigravida, women not using bed nets and women who gives birth at gestation age of <37 weeks. We recommend more studies on PM in low endemic.

Introduction: Geographical Information System (GIS) has proven to be very useful for large scale mapping of ecosystems, land use and cover, disease prevalence, risk mapping and forecasting. GIS establish relationship or link between vector borne diseases and associated environmental factors thereby providing explanation for spatial distribution pattern, possible causes of diseases outbreak and implications on the community.

Aims and Objectives: Our approach in this study was to define and identify areas and places that are exposed to Malaria risk through proximity analysis and to compare geospatial risk with laboratory diagnosed malaria epidemiology.

Methodology: Garmin GPS was used to capture the geographic coordinates of six (6) selected settlements and overlaid with georeferenced and processed satellite images in the study area. GIS modeling was performed on risk factors using weighted overlay technique to produce malaria risk map. A total of One hundred and thirty-five (135) vulnerable individuals were diagnosed for Malaria with light Olympus microscope and rapid diagnostic kit (RDT). Data were entered and analyzed using R-Package for Statistical Computing and Graphics.

Results: Proximity to malaria risk follows relatively the order Apodu > Central Malete > Elemere > KWASU Campus > Gbugudu. Apodu being the largest place with proximity to malaria risk, within 500 m radius. The risk index increases as one move away from the center of the settlement. The possible explanation for this high risk could be the presence of pond / lake in Apodu. This is a good breeding site for mosquito couple with dense vegetation as one move away from the centre of the settlements. Unlike Apodu, Gbugudu was at medium risk at 100 m buffer (60%) but the risk index decreases as one move away from the settlement centre. The absence of thick vegetation and presence of numerous open farms and partly cultivated farmlands on the eastern part could have been responsible for reduction in risk index. Dense vegetation and ponds were observed within Apodu, while Central Malete was built up with dense vegetation are possible reasons for the high-risk index, while settlements within 1 km radius around KWASU campus recorded lower risk index possibly due to low vegetation. The geospatial malaria risk analysis correlates with the laboratory-based test results. RDT kits and light microscopy results showed Apodu having the highest malaria prevalence with 46% and 58.7% followed by Elemere 41% and 30.3% respectively. When calculating prevalence by aggregating results across all communities, Apodu still had the highest malaria prevalence for the whole region. RDT and light microscopy results combined for all communities had Apodu with malaria prevalence of 21.48% and 27.4% followed by Elemere with 11.85% and 12.5% respectively. Gbugudu had the least malaria prevalence within the region with 3.7% and 7.4% respectively.

Discussion and Conclusion: Findings of this study showed dense vegetation and ponds within Apodu, Elemere and Central Malete served as good breeding site for mosquitoes and were responsible for the high-risk index at these areas. Settlements within 1 km radius around KWASU campus recorded lower index possibly due to low vegetation. Results from this study indicate that the degree of malaria parasitaemia in the three major settlements correlates directly with the remote sensing data.