No abstract

The tropical fruit Carica papaya and its seeds have proven antihelminthic and anti-amoebic activities. To determine the effectiveness of air-dried C. papaya seeds on human intestinal parasitosis, 60 asymptomatic Nigerian children with stool microscopic evidence of intestinal parasites received immediate doses (20 mL) of either an elixir composed with air-dried C. papaya seeds and honey (CPH) or honey alone (placebo) in two randomized treatment groups. Repeat stool microscopic examinations were conducted 7 days postintervention for intestinal parasites. Significantly more subjects given CPH elixir than those given honey had their stools cleared of parasites [23 of 30 (76.7%) vs. five of 30 (16.7%); z = 4.40, P = .0000109]. There were no harmful effects. The stool clearance rate for the various types of parasites encountered was between 71.4% and 100% following CPH elixir treatment compared with 0-15.4% with honey. Thus, air-dried C. papaya seeds are efficacious in treating human intestinal parasites and without significant side effects. Their consumption offers a cheap, natural, harmless, readily available monotherapy and preventive strategy against intestinal parasitosis, especially in tropical communities. Further and large-scale intervention studies to compare C. papaya with standard antiparasitic preparation are desirous.

Summary: Purpose:The study assessed the school performance of Nigerian adolescents with epilepsy compared with healthy controls and examined the variables correlating with their academic difficulties.Methods: The school grades of adolescents with epilepsy aged 12 to 18 years (n = 73) over the past academic year were compared with the grades of their classmates of the same age and gender. Risk factors possibly associated with school performance, such as adolescent variables (age, gender, perceived stigma, attitude toward epilepsy, and psychopathology), seizure variables (age at onset of illness, years of illness, types of seizures, and frequency of seizures per month), drug variables [types of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), number of AEDs and side effects of AEDs], and family variables (family's socioeconomic status, family functioning, caretakers' psychopathology, and caretakers' perceived stigma) were assessed. Results:The mean school grades of adolescents with epilepsy are significantly lower than are those of their healthy controls (p < 0.001) in all the subjects. The variables that significantly predict poor school performance in adolescents with epilepsy include psychopathology in the caretaker (p < 0.001), adolescents' perceived poor family functioning (p = 0.002), adolescents' attitude toward the illness (p = 0.001), adolescents' felt stigma (p = 0.002), externalizing symptoms in the adolescents (p = 0.004), and duration of illness (p = 0.024).Conclusions: The determinants of poor school performance in adolescents with epilepsy in Nigeria are multivariate, with psychosocial factors most important. These should be noted for early identification and screening of those children at greatest risk for academic failure and the greatest need for appropriate educational remediation services.

Honey is a superior wound dressing agent to EUSOL. Honey is recommended for the dressing of infected wounds, more so in tropical countries, where it is most readily available.

The year 2000 marked another failed World Health Organization deadline for neonatal tetanus (NNT) eradication. Existing preventive strategies can be enhanced by exploring factors involved in the persistence of the scourge. Thus, records of neonates admitted between 1996 and 2000 into the Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa, were analysed. Of 3051 total neonatal admissions,162 (5.3%) had NNT. Eighty-nine (54.9%) mothers had clinic-based antenatal care (ANC), but only 59 (36.4%) had tetanus toxoid (TT) vaccines. The majority (66.7%) of them delivered at home or churches and others at either private clinics or primary health centres. Overall, the case fatality rate was 43.8%, though it was significantly higher among babies whose mothers had neither clinic-based ANC (odds ratio [OR] = 2.62; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.33-5.18) nor antenatal TT vaccination (OR = 2.41; 95% CI = 1.17-5.03). Thus, improvement on ANC, anti-tetanus immunization and ensuring hygienic deliveries are crucial for eliminating NNT in the 21st century.