It was a major breakthrough for human medicine when Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood group system. But with the discovery of ABO and Rhesus systems, this major hindrance to safe blood transfusion- and by extension surgery- was effectively put behind humanity. Centuries after this, humanity is faced another kind of challenge to safe blood transfusion- transfusion transmitted infections (TTIs), particularly in developing nations of the world. Though lots of infections are transmissible through transfusion, the focus of this study was HIV, HBV, HCV and syphilis. This study aimed at determining the prevalence of these TTIs (HIV, HBV, HCV and syphilis) among intending blood donors at a tertiary health facility in Ekiti State, southwest, Nigeria. The data of 150 intending blood donors at the said tertiary health facility were retrospectively retrieved and analysed. One hundred and twenty (80%) of the subjects were males, while 30 (20%) were females. The age of the subjects ranged between 18 and 55 years. Thirty-four (22.7%) of the subjects had TTIs, while 116 (77.3%) were negative to all the TTIs of interest for this study (HIV, HBV, HCV and Syphilis). Out of the 34 subjects who had TTIs, 2 (1.3%) tested positive for HIV, 18 (12%) for HBV; 10 (6.7%) for HCV and 4 (2.7%) for syphilis. Twenty-nine (85.3%) of the subjects who had TTIs were males, while 5 (14.7%) were females. An overall TTI sero-prevalence of 2.7% is rather on the high side and should serve as a wake-up call to all concerned authorities in the State to design enlightenment programme that will reduce the sero-prevalence of TTIs.

Urinary tract infection is huge public health burden and the emergence of extended spectrum beta lactamase producing bacterial pathogens increases the burden of infectious diseases in Nigeria. This study determined the current prevalence of cephalosporin resistance among Gram-negative bacteria isolated from patients with urinary tract infections between February 2018 and June 2018. Non-repetitive Gram–negative bacteria were recovered from 106 individuals with urinary tract infections who reported at two tertiary healthcare centers in Ekiti-State, Nigeria. A total of 106 bacterial isolates were obtained which included: Klebsiella pneumoniae 34 (29.1%), Klebsiella oxytoca 17 (16.0%), Proteus vulgaris 10 (9.4%), E. coli 24 (22.6%), Proteus mirabilis 18 (16.9%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa 3 (2.8%). Sixty five of these organisms showed resistance to ceftazidime while 76 organisms showed resistance to ceftriaxone. Forty representative organisms were selected and tested for presence of extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) genes using primers specific for different ESBL genes. A total of eight (20.0%) organisms carried the blaCTX-M gene and other variants of the ESBL genes were not detected. The organisms carrying the blaCTX-M gene included E. coli 3 (37.5%), K. pneumoniae 1(12.5%), P. mirabilis 1(12.5%),) and K. oxytoca 3(37.5%). The high prevalence of cephalosporin resistant Gram-negative bacteria among patients with UTI is a serious threat to public health and efforts must be intensified to regulate the clinical use of the cephalosporins.

Background: Although chloroquine (CQ) has been officially replaced with artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) as first line drug for the treatment of malaria in Nigeria since 2005, a lot of people still believe that chloroquine is more effective chiefly because of the decline in the sensitivity of Plasmodium falciparum to ACT. Thus resulting into unofficial use of CQ for self medication. This study was conducted in order to survey the current status of chloroquine resistant strains of pfcrt and pfmdr1 in view of possible re-introduction of chloroquine for malaria treatment. Methods: DNA was extracted from one hundred (100) microscopically confirmed Plasmodium falciparum positive blood samples spotted on 3 mm Whatman filter paper. The detection of mutations in Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter (Pfcrt) and Plasmodium falciparum multidrug resistance (Pfmdr1) genes was performed by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Results: Results showed the presence of mutant alleles of Pfcrt and Pfmdr1 in 60% and 41% of the samples respectively. However, there was no significant correlation in the prevalence of mutant alleles (T76/Y86) in relation to gender (p = 0.59/ 0.08) and age (p=0.59/0.93) of participants respectively. Conclusion: The observed high prevalence of chloroquine resistance despite thirteen years of withdrawal calls for serious concern.

Introduction: Curative misuse of medicinal plants are worrisome with the paucity of histological information. This led to the investigation of Ipomoea asarifolia in Swiss albino rats infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Methods: Extraction was done using the cold maceration method. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of the extracts were determined using the micro-dilution method. Swiss albino rats of 6 sub-groups with 6 animals each (36 animals/organism) were administered with 0.3 ml single oral dose of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus respectively. The animals received treatment for 5 days as follows: 0.5 ml of 5% dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) (negative control), 250 mg/kg of amoxicillin (positive control), 2 mg/kg of whole plant extract, 4 mg/kg of whole plant extract, 2 mg/kg of leaf extract, and 4 mg/kg of leaf extract, respectively. The packed cell volume (PCV) and white blood count (WBC) of the animals were determined before and after treatment with histology examination of vital organs. Results: MIC for S. aureus was 2 mg/mL; the mortality in S. aureus group at 2 mg/kg was 66.7%. The PCV values (50.5±0.5, 45.0±1.0, and 50.5±1.5) decreased after infection, and a corresponding increase in the PCV was observed after treatment with the extracts. Also, a significant increase in the WBC values (3.40±0.35, 4.10±0.15, and 3.30±0.40) following infection and a corresponding decrease after treatment were observed. Congestion of vessels in the kidney was also observed. Conclusion: I. asarifolia has a dose-dependent antibacterial and curative activity, and could enhance innate immunity.

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Viral hepatitis is a serious disease of the liver that can have grim prognosis in the absence of early and appropriate medical intervention. Globally, an estimated two billion people are reported to have been infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and out of this, more than 350 million are said to have chronic(long term) liver infection. The likelihood that Hepatitis B Virus infection will become chronic depends upon the age at which a person becomes infected. Young children who become infected with HBV are most likely to develop chronic infection. About 25% of adults who become chronically infected during childhood die from HBV related liver cancer or cirrhosis. According to WHO ranking of hepatitis prevalence, ≤ 1.9%, 2-7.9% and ≥ 8% are low, moderate and high prevalence respectively. Hepatitis is endemic in Ekiti State, there is therefore the need to know its prevalence in the major cities of Ekiti State. Since Ikere-Ekiti is the second major city of Ekiti State, therefore this study set out to know the prevalence of HBV-caused hepatitis in Ikere-Ekiti and its associated factors,. One hundred participants were enrolled- at the State specialist Hospital, Ikere-Ekiti- into the study after obtaining their informed consent. Consecutive sampling was used. Thirty-three (33%) of the subjects were males while 67 (67%) were females. Thirty-seven (37%) , 30 (30%) and 33 (33%) respectively fell were in the ≤26 years, 27-36 and ≥37 age-brackets. Fifty-two (52 %) were singles while 48 (48%) were married. Ninety-three (93%) were Christians while 7 (%) were Muslims. Structured self-administered questionnaires were served on the subjects. Five millilitres of blood were collected from each subject using venepuncture method. The samples were screened for the presence or otherwise of antibodies to HBsAg using a rapid test kit that worked on the principle of immunochromatography. An overall prevalence of 8% was discovered. Five (5%) of the positive subjects were males while 3 (%) were females (p=0.064). Half (50%) of the positive subjects were within the ≤26 years age-bracket, the 27-36 age-bracket had the least number of positive subjects (p=0.512).  Two out of the positive subjects had a history of blood transfusion (p=0.748), one had history of surgery (p=0.580). The imports and implications of these are here discussed. Since viral hepatitis is vaccine-preventable and herd immunity can only be achieved when the vast majority of a society acquires immunity against a particular infectious disease, the government is advised to strive to vaccinate at least 70% of the populace against viral hepatitis- a disease which is endemic, not only in Ekiti State, but in many parts of Nigeria.

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