Background: Hand hygiene is the simplest method that is effective in terms of cost with its importance in preventing transmission of microorganisms and infections. Though this being the case, it has been found to be clumsy and faulty in most healthcare settings. What has been done on assessing the medical students" knowledge, attitude and practice and comparisons of these factors between the medical disciplines is not exhaustive. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among the undergraduate medical students to assess the knowledge in medical students, their attitude and barriers to hand hygiene practice where simple random sampling technique was applied to obtain a sample size. A questionnaire on alcohol-based hand rubs and WHO recommendations on hand hygiene was used for data collection. Results: A total of 392 respondents were interviewed. The respondents comprised of 232 males and 160 females. The overall mean score for individual knowledge was 49.4%. The study revealed that more than half of the respondents 203 had poor knowledge on hand hygiene while 43.1% had average and 5.1% were consider to have good knowledge. Most of the respondents had good attitude on hand hygiene on most of the aspects that were assessed. Several barriers to effective hand hygiene practice were highlighted by the respondent. Conclusions: The study concluded that more sensitization was needed to increase awareness and knowledge of the practice in medical students which could be achieved by adding a course on hand hygiene practice to the undergraduate medical students" curriculum amongst others.

Background: Self-medication is the action of taking medication without consulting a physician or healthcare professional. It is one element of self-care coupled with social support during unwellness and aid. Though advocated for by health promoters it has its own fair share of cons. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted where a sample was obtained using published tables and simple random sampling technique was used to draw the sample from a population of 800 student’s gaining a total sample of 267 and to account for non-response and loss 10% was added giving a total of 294 respondents. Results: The prevalence was 82.6% (218) and the age group with the highest frequency of 77.4% was 19-21 years.  The male prevalence was higher than for the female with 60.1% (131). The study revealed highest source of information to be pharmacist with 37.8%, highest source of medication was drug shops with 38.1%, highest used medication to be coughs and cold syrups with 78% (205). The reason for self-medication with the highest percentage was suffering from minor illness with 75.37% (199). The symptoms that are highly self-medicated for were coughs and cold (78.7%), pains and headaches (74.2%), stomach discomforts (72.4) and fever (70%). Conclusions: This study revealed a high prevalence of self-medication with 82.6% among the students. Creating awareness, enforcing the laws, informing the relevant stakeholders on availability of medicines and sealing the loops on dispensing of medication could save a generation.