A hundred and forty (140) pieces of abused Naira notes were randomly and aseptically collected in Kano metropolis and examined microbiologically for the load and type of microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) using swab-rinse and standard plate count techniques. The mean average bacterial counts on the notes ranged between 3.59 x 10 2 cfu/ml and 1.29 x 10 5 cfu/ml while fungal counts ranged between 3.24 x 10 2 cfu/ml and 1.59 x 10 6 cfu/ml. The lowest and highest counts for both bacteria and fungi were found in the N500 and N5 abused naira denominations respectively. The bacteria isolated include the genera of Bacillus, Brucella, Clostridium, Corynebacterium, Listeria, Micrococcus and Staphylococcus while fungi include the genera of Aspergillus, Fusarium, Mucor, Penicillium and Rhizopus. There was no recovery of both bacteria and fungi in the control. The implications of the results have been discussed.

Hepatitis is one of the neglected infectious diseases in sub Saharan Africa and most of the available data is based on blood donors. Health care workers (HCWs) often get infected as a result of their close contact with patients.A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B and C among this group of professionals with a view to improving the quality of care to their patients. Hepatitis B and C infections pose a major public health problem worldwide. While infection is highest in the developing world particularly Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, healthcare workers are at higher risk of acquiring blood-borne viral infections, particularly Hepatitis B and C which are mostly asymptomatic. This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of Hepatitis B and C infections and associated risk factors among health care workers in Dutse Metropolis, Jigawa State -Nigeria. A standard rapid immuno-chromatographic technique i.e. rapid ELISA was used to screen all sera for Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and Hepatitis C viral antibody (HCVAb) respectively. Strips containing coated antibodies and antigens to HBV and HCV respectively were removed from the foil. Strips were labeled according to samples. Using a separate disposable pipette, 2 drops of the sample (plasma) were added into each test strip and allowed to run across the absorbent pad. Results were read after 15 minutes. The prevalence of HBV and HCV infection in 100 healthcare workers was determined by testing the plasma collected from the clients during their normal checkup using HBsAg and HCVAb test strips. Results were subjected to statistical analysis using chi-square test. The prevalence of HBV among HCWs was 19 out of 100 (19.0%) and that of HCV was 5 out of 100 (5.0%) where in both cases, higher prevalence was observed among female nurses. It was also observed that all HCV positive cases were recorded among nurses only. The study revealed that nurses are at greater risk of contracting HBV and HCV due to their frequent contact with patients. It is therefore recommended that effective vaccination and other infection control measures be encouraged among healthcare workers.

Background: Typhoid fever remains a public health challenge in developing countries. In Nigeria, patients usually come with complains of fever and other symptoms typical of febrile illnesses where resource limitation in healthcare facilities necessitates the use of screening tests for diagnosis. Widal test is widely used due to its simplicity. However, the specificity of this test has been debated. The present study compared the diagnostic validity of Widal to blood culture and evaluated interferon gamma response among the study participants. Methods: A total of 90 patients with complain of fever and other symptoms suggestive of typhoid fever were recruited for the study. Widal serology, automated blood culture and interferon gamma concentration were conducted using rapid antibody detection kit, BACTEC and sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) respectively. Results were subjected to Fisher’s exact test using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 22 where a p- value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Of the 90 samples tested, 63 (70.0%) were positive for anti Typhi O antigen while 42 (46.7%) were positive for anti- Typhi H antigen. Similarly, 18 (20%) of the patients had non-S. Typhi culture positivity while 72 (80%) had no bacteria isolated. Overall, 0 (0%) of the cases had S. Typhi positive culture. Fisher’s exact test suggests a significant difference between blood culture status and prevalence of anti-S. Typhi H antigen. Interferon gamma concentration was found to be significantly associated with blood culture status as plasma interferon gamma levels increased with bacteraemia. Fisher’s exact test showed a strong statistical relationship between interferon gamma concentration and blood culture (p=0.003). Conclusions: Interferon gamma has a direct proportionality with bacteraemia and as such, could be a good marker for the development of an alternative screening test, possibly an interferon gamma based detection system for typhoid fever. However, further research is required to implement that.

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