Women of childbearing age in a rural community in Kano state were interviewed to ascertain the determinants of utilization of antenatal care services in the village. Of the 200 women studied, 118 (59%) utilized antenatal care services during pregnancy. A majority (86%) of those who attained secondary school education, all of those with post-secondary education and 83% of those whose husbands had post-secondary education utilized antenatal care services.

Background:Appropriate infant feeding is the key to optimum infant and child development and survival. This study investigates age-appropriate infant feeding practices and nutritional status of infants attending the immunization and child welfare clinic at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital.Materials and Methods:Using a cross-sectional descriptive design, a sample of 300 sets of infants (age ≤12 months) and caregivers was systematically selected and studied. The data were analyzed using the MINITAB® 12.21 (USA) statistical software.Results:All the infants studied were still on breast milk. Most of the mothers demonstrated correct body positioning (89.9) and attachment (78.7%) during breastfeeding, and effective suckling was demonstrated in 77.0%. Interestingly, none of the infants was either exclusively breastfed for 6 months or currently on exclusive breastfeeding. Furthermore, only 64 (58.2%) of the 110 infants that were more than 6 months of age had appropriately been started on complementary feeding from 6 months of age. Overall, most caregivers (88.7%) had “fair” to “good” infant feeding practices. The practices were significantly associated with their level of education, and their relationship with the infants. Up to 40.0% and 73.7% of the infants had varying degrees of wasting and stunting respectively. Infant feeding practices and the age of the infants emerged as the only factors significantly associated with stunting, while both the caregivers’ practices and age of the infants emerged as significant predictors of wasting in the infants.Conclusion and Recommendations:Barely 3 years to the 2015 target of the millennium development goals (MDGs), infant feeding and nutritional status still poses a serious threat to the dream of realizing the MDG-4. The Ministry of Health and relevant developing partners in this region should as a matter of urgency, formulate and implement a strong community-based public health intervention program to improve the knowledge and practices of mothers on infant feeding.

Introduction: Father's involvement is essential for the successful immunization of the child, as man is the head of the family and he takes responsibility for all decisions including health and financial issues. This study aimed to assess the knowledge of fathers, uptake of routine immunization (RI), and its associated factors in a rural community of North West Nigeria. Materials and Methods: The study was a community-based cross-sectional study conducted among the male heads of households residing in a rural community of Sokoto state. Systematic sampling was used to recruit 276 respondents. Data were obtained using a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data obtained was entered into the IBM Software package and subsequently analyzed. Level of significance was set at 5%. Results: Only 2.5% and 1.4% of the respondents knew the age measles and yellow fever vaccines were given, respectively. Majority (75.4%) of the respondents' last-born child did not receive bacillus Calmette-Guérin at birth. Only (7.6%) of their last-born child were completely immunized for age. Majority of the respondents that had poor knowledge of RI had no formal education ( P = 0.043). Conclusion: The study reported the knowledge of RI among fathers was poor. Having formal education and perception that children should be allowed to receive RI were correlates of good knowledge and uptake of RI. Parents, fathers, in particular, should be educated on the schedule of RI.

People in Africa and other developing countries depend on medicinal plants. Extract of Parkia biglobosa stem bark is used in Nigerian traditional medicine to treat malaria, diarrhea and pains. This study aimed at determining the effect of aqueous stem bark extract of P.biglobosa on the histological morphology of liver in animal models. A total of 28 wistar rats weighing between 100 – 150g were used for this study out of which 12 were used for acute toxicity testing using Lorke’s method (1983), the test was carried out in two phases. In phase I, 9 adult wistar rats were divided into 3 groups and administered with 10mg/kg, 100mg/kg and 1000mg/kg orally while in phase II, 3 wistar rats were assigned into 3 groups and administered with 1600mg/kg, 2600mg/kg and 5000mg/kg respectively and both they were observed for signs of toxicity/mortality within 24hrs. The remaining 16 rats were divided into 4 groups; A, B, C and D. Group A served as control and groups B, C and D served as test groups. For 21 days, group A received normal feed and water only and then group B, C and D received oral doses of 1000mg/kg, 500mg/kg and 250mg/kg of aqueous extract of P.biglobosa stem bark respectively. A significant increase in the level of ALP, ALT and AST was observed in comparison with the control, P< 0.005 was considered statistically significant. It was shown that liver sections in group A (control) presents no histological changes while the liver section of animals treated with (1000mg/kg and 500mg/kg) of P.biglobosa aqueous extract for 21 days revealed an inflammation, vascular degeneration and vacoulation respectively. It was found that at higher doses P.biglobosa aqueous stem bark extract could be hepatotoxic.