Background: Food vendors play a critical food safety role in the "farm to plate" continuum that is necessary for the prevention and control of food borne diseases and therefore, any lack of its understanding by the food vendors poses a serious challenge to food safety. Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and hygienic practices of food vendors in Owerri town of Imo State, Nigeria. Methods: The study was a Cross-Sectional descriptive design that used a proportionate convenience sampling technique to select 200 food vendors from the three Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Owerri town. Data were collected using a pretested semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Descriptive analyses were done with frequencies and summary statistics. Chi square statistics were computed to determine significant relationships and p value was set at 0.05 significant level. Results: While a majority of the respondents had a good level of knowledge (81%) and positive attitude (71%) about food hygiene, only 37% of the respondents had a good level of hygienic practice. It was revealed that 32% and 46% of the respondents received training on food hygiene and environmental health worker inspection respectively. It was also revealed that, there were statistically significant relationships between knowledge (p = 0.001), attitude (p = 0.000), formal training on food hygiene (p = 0.000) and the level of food hygienic practices. Conclusion: The public health management of food vending services should involve the development of strategies that will equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to provide vending services in a hygienic and safe manner.How to cite this paper: Iwu, A.C.,

IntroductionHealth care workers are exposed to the risk of blood-borne diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis B and C in their daily encounter with infected patients and materials through unsafe injections. This study determined the baseline and post-intervention knowledge and practice of modern injection safety standards among health care workers.MethodsThe study population was the healthcare workers in a teaching hospital in southeastern Nigeria. Data was collected using a self-administered 37-item structured questionnaire assessing their knowledge and practice on injection safety. Collected data was analyzed using SPSS.ResultsNurses comprised 62.8% (98/156) of the population. While most had heard of injection safety only 67.2% (84/125) had previously had any form of training on it. Only 54% (81/150) had heard or seen color coded bins. The standard needle and syringe is still widely used and 45% (65/145) still recap needles on syringes after use irrespective of type of personnel. Half (50.6% =78/154) of our respondents had had a previous needle prick injury. Only 25.6% (20/78) with previous needle prick injury had post-exposure prophylaxis. All doctors and laboratory scientists always use gloves compared to 94.8% (91/96) nurses while handling patients or materials. Following the intervention, a significantly high number became aware of post-exposure prophylaxis and color coded bins and liners.ConclusionThere is a need for healthcare workers to be regularly updated on changing safety standards in their practice. Also hospitals must be encouraged to acquire and use internationally accepted standard materials in collection and disposal patient's samples.

Background: Immunization coverage in different parts of the country varies widely despite efforts to improve the services. The immunization status of children is dependent on the dynamics of vaccination uptake which is complex and involves the interplay of different associated factors. Aim: To determine the immunization coverage, status and the determinants in under 5-year-old children in Owerri municipal, Imo State. Methods: The study was a community based cross-sectional study involving 420 women and 743 under 5-year-old children. A multistage sampling technique was employed and data were collected using a pretested, semi structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Data were analysed using a computer software SPSS-IBM version 20. Results: It revealed that 63.6% and 88.9% of children less than 12 months and between 12 -59 months respectively according to households were fully immunized. The bivariate analysis showed statistically significant associations between the immunization status of the children and place of birth delivery (p < 0.0001), maternal age (p < 0.0001), level of maternal education (p < 0.01), level of maternal knowledge (p < 0.0001), religion (p < 0.05) and ethnicity (p < 0.01). Significant predictors of being fully immunized were; maternal age 25 -29 years old (OR = 2.1), children aged 12 -59 months (OR = 4.6), mother having tertiary education (OR = 5.4), being a Christian Catholic (OR = 12.5), hospital births (OR = 25.2) and good level of maternal knowledge (OR = 37.7). Conclusion: Immunization coverage is relatively high but not optimal among the studied population and thus there is a need to develop strategies aimed at achieving full immunization coverage as this is critical in the reduction of childhood morbidity and mortality.

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