Co-infection is the simultaneous infection of host by multiple pathogenic species, which may co-exist together or not. In this study, the co-infection of malaria, HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B was investigated, using four different locations in Akure, Ondo State. Blood samples were aseptically collected from the left thumbs of 500 respondents using sterile lancets. Thin and thick smear of the blood samples were observed for malaria parasites using X100 magnification of the light microscope. Hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS were tested using diagnostic test kits. The results show that highest prevalence of malaria was observed in Oba-Ile (82.09%) among age group 31-40 years (92.72%). The lowest prevalence was found in Ala-Ajagbusi (73.17%) among age group 21-30 years (70.03%). Highest prevalence of hepatitis (7.06%) was observed in Orita-Obele while the lowest prevalence was observed in Ala- Ajagbusi (4.88%). HIV/AIDS infection was found Orita-Obele (1.76%, n=3) and Ala-Ajagbusi (2.44%, n=2). The results further show that all the individuals that tested positive to hepatitis B virus and HIV also tested positive to malaria. Also, 3 of the 5 individuals infected with HIV/AIDS tested positive to hepatitis B virus. Similarly, malaria, hepatitis B virus and HIV cohabit in 2 individuals; 1 in age group 21-30 years and 1 in age group 31-40 years. Coinfection of malaria with hepatitis and HIV/AIDS suggests that malaria is an opportunistic infection among the hepatitis and AIDS patients. This calls for prompt malaria treatment among the immunocompromised patients. More so, there should be adequate and consistent public health advocacy programs, to enlighten the populace about malaria, hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS in order to completely mitigate the disease spread in the area.
Wood furniture industry is an important manufacturing sector in Nigeria for its significant contributions to the growth of national economy and industrialization as well as livelihood of the furniture makers. Therefore, evaluating efficiency of hard wood industry is important to provide useful information about the business to the furniture makers and to assist the policy makers to design appropriate policies in supporting furniture production in Nigeria. The specific objectives of this research were to describe socio-economic characteristics of furniture makers, estimate efficiency of furniture makers, determine the profitability of furniture production, identify factors influencing efficiency of furniture making and examine the problems associated with furniture makings in the study area. The study adopted a multistage sampling procedure. Data were collected from seventy furniture makers through a well-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, budgetary analysis, Cobb Douglas stochastic frontier production function, inefficiency model and relative importance index were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that 75.7% of the respondents obtained some levels of formal education; 4.3% of the furniture makers were single; 71.4% had no access to credit facility; and 7.1% exported their products beyond the boundary of Nigeria. The estimated gross margin and net profit of #7,041,255.09 (US $16,959.52) and #4,261,542.89 (US $10,264.33) respectively revealed that furniture production is profitable. The efficiency results showed that 27% of furniture makers were most technically efficient; 5.7% of them were most allocative efficient; and 10% of them were most economically efficient. Stochastic frontier production function analysis showed that firm size, labour and fixed assets had a positively significant influence on furniture production. The only identified socio-economic characteristics of furniture makers that had significant influence on efficiency of furniture production were educational level, operating experience and reinforcement training in the study area. The two critical constraints facing furniture making in the ranking scale were fluctuation of wood price and inadequacy of funds.
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