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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.

The utilization of plant materials as alternative therapies to control pathogenic bacteria has recently attracted. The effect of the fresh seed, freeze-dried seed, fresh leaf and freeze-dried leaf of using ethanol and aqueous extracts was tested on some organisms using standard laboratory procedures. The bacteria used were Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Klebsella pneumonia and oryzae, while the fungi used were Trichoderma harzionium, Fusconium oxysporium, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium notatum. The results showed that the ethanol extracts of B. coriacea fresh seed showed inhibitory zones ranging from 2–12 mm, while the aqueous extract showed inhibitory zones ranging from 2-10 mm. The ethanol extracts of B. coriacea freeze dried seed showed inhibitory zones ranging from 5–38 mm, while the aqueous extract showed inhibitory zones ranging from 4-36 mm. The ethanol extracts of B. coriacea fresh leaf showed inhibitory zones ranging from 2–26 mm, while the aqueous extract showed inhibitory zones ranging from 2-24 mm. The aqueous and ethanol extracts of B. coriacea freeze dried leaf showed inhibitory zones ranging from 3-40mm respectively. The study conclude that the aqueous and ethanol extract of freeze dried seed of B. coriacea showed better antifungal and antibacterial activity against the test organisms compared with the aqueous and ethanol extract of fresh seed of B. coriacea. Similarly, the aqueous and ethanol extract of freeze dried leaf of B. coriacea showed better antifungal and antibacterial activity against the test organisms compared with the aqueous and ethanol extract of fresh leaf of B. coriacea. The ethanol extract showed better antifungal and antibacterial activity than aqueous extract.

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.

Infection with Staphylococcus aureus has been considered a major problem in hospitals. The clinical importance of S. aureus isattributed to notable virulence factors and genetic diversity. The objective of this study therefore was to investigate the distribution of S, aureus virulence gene anddifferent genotypesin some isolates obtained from clinical samples from Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti. A total of 25 isolates were screened for the presence of 16SrRNA,GeIE and asaIvirulence genes using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).Virulence genes 16SrRNA, gelE, asaI) formed clusters in S. aureus isolates used in this study. 16SrRNA was absence in 5 of the isolates and only present in 21 of the isolates. GeIE virulence gene was absence in 2 of the isolates and present in 23 of the isolates. AsaI virulence gene was absence in 7 of the isolates and present in 18 of the isolates. Virulence diversity was observed among isolates. Which could be used as a guide to the pathogenicity of individual isolates and hence control spread of infection.The genetic typing was carried out by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD-PCR) using OPBO8, OPHO4, OPH03, OPBO5, and OPT12 Primers. Also there exist different genotypes among the S. aureus isolates used in this study revealing high level of genetic diversity occurrence among S. aureus isolates. The DNA fingerprint revealed high genetic diversity among isolates irrespective of their sources. Further work could be done considering the antibiotic resistant gene and also sequencing of virulence gene clusters peculiar to S. aureus pathogens.

Journal of Biosciences and Medicines tive and positive subjects' questionnaires were carried out, so as to determine the probable risk-factors that predisposed the positive subjects to infection. Hypotheses tested at p < 0.05 revealed that there was a significant difference in the rate at which the subjects were infected with HIV among the age-groups.

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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