Cerebral malaria is a significant cause of childhood morbidity in our region. The challenges of effective management include time and quality of treatment. The study appraised the health care seeking behavior of caregivers of sick children who developed cerebral malaria, in Zaria, northwestern Nigeria. Caregivers indentified were parents 29 (87.9%) and grandparents 4 (12.1%). Most of them were in the upper social classes. Health care options utilized before presentation at our facility were formal health facility 24 (72.7%), patent medicine seller 12 (36.4%), home treatment 10 (30.3%), and herbal concoction 6 (18.2%) with majority 24 (72.7%) using more than one option. Antimalarial therapy was instituted in 25 (75.6%) of the cases. Mortality was significantly associated with the use of herbal concoction, treatment at a formal health facility and patent medicine seller, multiple convulsions, age less than 5 years, and noninstitution of antimalarial therapy before presentation. The study showed use of inappropriate health care options by caregivers and highlighted the need to pursue an awareness drive among caregivers on the use of health care options.

Contamination of surgical sites often resulting from inadequate surgical site preparation and poor asepsis is a common cause of surgical site infection (SSI) and postoperative complications. Standard practice ensuring preoperative skin disinfection helps to prevent the incidence of SSI. The choice of antiseptic therefore poses a serious counterbalance for the surgeon. This study was carried out to determine whether skin asepsis immediately prior to surgical site incision will reduce skin microbial burden that may potentiate the incidence of SSI and to compare the clinical effectiveness of chlorhexidine gluconate B.P 0.3%W/V, Cetrimide B.P 3.05 W/V (CG + Cetrimide) against povidone iodine 10% (PI) in pre-surgical skin preparation and asepsis in dogs. A total of 15 dogs were used for the study. Both side of each dog was used for the study, right side for CG + Certrimide and left side for PI; (n = 30). Aseptic agents’ chlorhexidine gluconate 0.3% and Cetrimide 3.0% and povidine iodine 10% were used as pre surgical scrub solutions prior to surgery. Swab samples were evaluated before scrubbing, 0, 30, 60 and 90 min after scrubbing. Percent reductions of bacterial colony forming units were determined for all site scrub techniques. Mixed-design ANOVA results revealed significant difference (P < 0.05) within groups and no significant difference (P > 0.05) in the disinfectant effects between groups treated with CG + Cetrimide and povidone iodine respectively across the various time periods. Changes in the mean bacteria count were observed to be equivalent using CG + Cetrimide and povidone iodine. It was concluded that there was no significant difference between CG + Cetrimide and PI in preoperative surgical skin preparations.