Background:Accidental childhood poisoning is one of the recognized causes of morbidity and mortality in children under the age of 5 years worldwide. The prevalence and type of substance ingested vary from place to place and over time.Aim:This study was conducted with the aim of ascertaining the frequency and pattern of accidental childhood poisoning in Enugu.Subjects and Methods:This retrospective study was conducted at the Emergency Paediatric Unit of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, South-East, Nigeria from January 2003 to December 2012 (10 years). All the cases of childhood accidental poisoning that presented within the period were reviewed and important information extracted.Results:Sixty-five cases of childhood poisoning were recorded during the 10-year period, giving an incidence rate of 442 per 100,000 children. The mean age was 22.15 ± 11.7 months. Male:female ratio was 1.5:1. The prevalence was higher among those with low socioeconomic background. Kerosene poisoning was the most common agent. The overall mortality rate was 3.1% (2/65).Conclusion:Accidental childhood poisoning is common in Enugu, with appreciable mortality, with kerosene being the most common agent. We advocate regulatory policy on proper ways of storing kerosene and other harmful household chemicals and medications.

Allergic diseases are common in children with asthma in our environment, but did not significantly impact on asthma control. Socioeconomic factors such as urbanization and family size had effects on the achievement of asthma control but not on allergy status.

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a group of rare inherited disorders of connective tissue with the common feature of excessive fragility of bones caused by mutations in collagen. Diagnosis is mainly based on the clinical features of the disorder. We report, the case of a male neonate delivered to a 33-year-old para 2 female at University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu with no family history suggestive of OI. He had clinical features of a type II OI and severe birth asphyxia. Multidisciplinary management was instituted, but he died on the 7th day of life.

Background:Body temperature measurement is a crucial clinical assessment in the care of an acutely ill child, especially the under fives. Most temperature measurements in our hospital are done from the axilla.Objective:To study the relationship between temperatures taken in the axilla with those taken in the rectum in febrile and afebrile children less than 5 years.Materials and Methods:Rectal and axillary temperatures were taken concurrently in 400 febrile and 400 afebrile children aged less than 5 years using mercury-in-glass thermometers.Result:The rectal temperature measurements ranged from 38.0 to 41.4°C and 36.4 to 37.9°C in the febrile and afebrile groups of children respectively while the axillary temperatures ranged from 36.7 to 41.0°C and 35.9 to 37.5°C in the febrile and afebrile groups of children, respectively. There were significant differences between the temperatures measured at the two sites in all the age groups studied. There was good positive correlation between the rectal and axillary temperatures. A linear relationship between axillary and rectal temperatures was derived using the simple regression analysis. The equation is: rectal temperature = 0.94×axillary temperature+2.92.Conclusion:Although there's good correlation between axillary and rectal temperatures, significant difference exits between them that cannot be explained by the addition of any single value or any particular equation.

Objective: To determine the level of awareness, knowledge and practice of human immunodeficiency virus post exposure prophylaxis (HIV PEP) among paediatricians in Nigeria. Methodology: The study was a cross sectional questionnairebased survey conducted among paediatrcians that attended the Paediatric association of Nigeria annual scientific conference in 2015. Results: Most of the respondents (96%) were aware of the concept HIV PEP. The scores on knowledge of PEP for all the respondents ranged from 18% to 91 % with a mean score of 46.5 ± 14.1%. There was no significant difference between the performance of those who had received training on HIV PEP (48.0 ± 13.2%) and those who had not (45.1 ± 14.8%), p = 0.21, t =1.26. Ninety one (60.7%) of the respondents had been exposed to percutaneous injury during work. Thirty (33%) of the exposed paediatricians did not know the patient's HIV status and only 10 (11%) received PEP, with only 7 (7.7%) of them completing the PEP for 4 weeks Conclusion: Despite the high level of HIV PEP awareness, there was an unacceptable high rate of occupational exposures and poor knowledge of HIV PEP among Paediatricians. Additionally, there was a low uptake of HIV PEP services amongst exposed Paediatricians in Nigeria. There is need for urgent action to curb this trend.