Background: Facilities which manage high-risk babies should frequently assess the burden of hypothermia and strive to reduce the incidence.

The mortality rate in infants with NNT remains signifi cantly high in Nigeria. Improved maternal anti-tetanus vaccination and timely recognition and treatment of affected infants may jointly reduce the incidence and fatality rate of NNT.

Objective: To document general baseline data on the patterns of childhood malignant tumours at a teaching hospital in south‐western Nigeria. Design, setting and participants: A retrospective study of childhood malignancy at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria, during an 11‐year period, from January 1996 to December 2006. Results: 77 children were diagnosed with malignant tumours (an average of seven diagnoses per year); 46 were boys (60%), giving a male‐to‐female ratio of 1.5 : 1. The age distribution of patients was 1–18 years. There were 42 diagnoses (55%) in the 1–5‐year age group and 68 malignancies (88%) were diagnosed at ages of 12 years or younger. Lymphomas were the most prevalent malignancy identified, accounting for 31 diagnoses (40%). Burkitt's lymphoma constituted the majority of malignancies (28 cases; 36%), followed by retinoblastoma (16 cases; 21%) and nephroblastoma (11 cases; 14%). Other malignancies included germ cell tumours (6), neuroblastomas (4), osteosarcomas (3), rhabdomyosarcomas (3) and non‐Hodgkin's lymphomas (3). One case each of medullary thyroid carcinoma, adenocarcinoma of the rectum, invasive mucinous carcinoma of the colon were also identified. Conclusion: These data suggest that Burkitt's lymphoma is the most common childhood malignant tumour in our geographic area of south‐western Nigeria. With the rising incidence of childhood malignancy in resource‐poor countries, measuring the baseline occurrence of such tumours is imperative to provide much‐needed resource allocation.

The objective of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics of babies with neonatal tetanus (NNT) whose mothers were immunised against tetanus and determine the outcome of their hospitalisation. The hospital records of babies affected by NNT whose mothers received at least two doses of anti-tetanus vaccine during pregnancy were identified and compared with similarly affected babies whose mothers were not immunised against tetanus during pregnancy in a Nigerian hospital. Out of 175 cases of NNT, the mothers of 24 (13.7%) babies were immunised against tetanus during pregnancy while the mothers of 151 (86.3%) were not. The proportions of babies of immunised mothers and unimmunised mothers who presented within the first three days of life, within a day of the onset of symptoms and with spasms were similar. Nevertheless, the survival rate was higher (62.5% vs. 26.5%; P = 0.0004) among babies of immunised mothers. Despite similarities in clinical presentation of babies of mothers with and without anti-tetanus vaccination, the survival rate was higher for the former.