We evaluated the impact of man-made conflict events and climate change impact in guiding evidence-based community “One Health” epidemiology and emergency response practice against re-/emerging epidemics. Increasing evidence of emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases including recent Lassa fever outbreaks in almost 20 states in Nigeria led to 101 deaths and 175 suspected and confirmed cases since August 2015. Of the 75 laboratory confirmed cases, 90 deaths occurred representing 120% laboratory-confirmed case fatality. The outbreak has been imported into neighbouring country such as Benin, where 23 deaths out of 68 cases has also been reported. This study assesses the current trends in re-emerging Lassa fever outbreak in understanding spatio-geographical reservoir(s), risk factors pattern and Lassa virus incidence mapping, inherent gaps and raising challenges in health systems. It is shown that Lassa fever peak endemicity incidence and prevalence overlap the dry season (within January to March) and reduced during the wet season (of May to November) annually in Sierra Leone, Senegal to Eastern Nigeria. We documented a scarcity of consistent data on rodent (reservoirs)-linked Lassa fever outbreak, weak culturally and socio-behavioural effective prevention and control measures integration, weak or limited community knowledge and awareness to inadequate preparedness capacity and access to affordable case management in affected countries. Hence, robust sub/regional leadership commitment and investment in Lassa fever is urgently needed in building integrated and effective community “One Health” surveillance and rapid response approach practice coupled with pest management and phytosanitation measures against Lassa fever epidemic. This offers new opportunities in understanding human-animal interactions in strengthening Lassa fever outbreak early detection and surveillance, warning alerts and rapid response implementation in vulnerable settings. Leveraging on Africa CDC centre, advances in cloud-sourcing and social media tools and solutions is core in developing and integrating evidence-based and timely risk communication, and reporting systems in improving contextual community-based immunization and control decision making policy to effectively defeat Lassa fever outbreak and other emerging pandemics public health emergencies in Africa and worldwide.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s40249-018-0421-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Cancer is on the increase globally. Cancer could be associated with hazards from anthropogenic activities. This study attempted to determine the site-specific potential human risks from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sites of different socioeconomic human activities from soils across Lagos metropolis in Nigeria by including a geographic information system (GIS) approach. A Human Simulation Test method was used to determine bio-accessibility for 16 priority PAHs. This was then spatially modelled using a GIS. The spatial vulnerability index for cancer developed show some variation within the study area from 0.2 -0.0002 all falling below the normal exposure risk level of 1.0. The vulnerability to cancer based on different anthropogenic activities assessed were within the acceptable risk levels. However, it is important to reduce human exposure to even low concentrations of bio-accessible PAHs due to their tendency to bio-accumulate in plants, humans and other organisms.

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BackgroundNigeria ranks second globally only behind India in under-five mortality prevalence. In Nigeria, 108.8 children die per 1000 live births before their 5th birthday. It is of note that diarrhoea (15.3% prevalence) is the second leading cause of under-five mortality in Nigeria after pneumonia. General poor hygiene and nutritional status are contributory factors to diarrhea.MethodsData was collected for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) using the weight for height z-value (WHZ) and/or oedema criteria. In addition, data on diarrhoea prevalence, oral rehydration salt therapy (ORST), improved source of drinking water and improved sanitation were collected. These were obtained for 36 states and federal capital territory (FCT) from the National Bureau of Statistics headquarters in FCT, Abuja for 2015. Correlation analysis was first carried out to determine relationships followed by geographically weighted regression analysis (GWR). GWR was used to predict under-five mortality pattern and accuracy mapped.ResultsObserved correlation coefficients to diarrhoea prevalence were 0.59,–0.49, −0.35 and −0.63 for SAM, ORST, improved drinking water access, and improved sanitation, respectively. R2 varied across states, though positive, from 0.29 in Akwa Ibom to 0.95 in Kebbi states. Standard deviation of residuals in the regression model ranged from −3.89 to 3.33 in Borno and Gombe states respectively, while Sokoto and Bauchi had 0.006 and 0.024 respectively, thus having the best accuracy in predictions across all states in the country. Both correlation and GWR were at p<0.05.ConclusionThe results obtained support literature, confirming the inverse relationship between ORST prevalence, improved drinking water access and improved sanitation to diarrhea prevalence. It also supports the already confirmed positive relationship between poor nutrition of children and susceptibility to diarrhoea. The study however expanded knowledge by incorporating geocomputation to predict diarrhoea prevalence.

Background: In Nigeria, medicinal plants are now being threatened due to increased urbanization, land clearing for farming and over-harvesting from their natural habitats. As such, if such trends continue, some of these medicinal plants might increasingly become not available and in the extreme circumstance be faced with extinction. Methods: An epidemiological descriptive field survey that employed a carefully-structured, closed-ended, interviewer-administered, paper-based questionnaire designed to capture information on the use of medicinal plants as antimalarial and for management of other associated illnesses. We also employed Global Positioning System (Garmin etrex 75) to captures the geo-coordinates of previously identified medicinal plants across the footpath transect at 20 m intervals. A total of twenty-one (21) medicinal plant species were surveyed across five communities with varying numbers per locations. Results: Out of the nine (9) identified traditional healers across the communities, all claimed to have used at least one or combinations of these plants for treatment of malaria. An image classification performed through land cover land use map of the study area revealed six classes: swamp /water bodies, river valley, savanna woodland, degraded woodland, grassland and settlements cluster. Most threatened species such as Aristolochia ringes, Mucuna prurins, Azadirachta indica, Kigelia africana, Citrus limon, Ludwigia suffruticosa, Parkia biglobosa, and Picralima nitida are those found in Malete KWASU campus axis in the degraded woodland and settlement cluster classes. This is due to the high level of forest destruction in the area as a result of growing student population and massive constructions of students’ hostel. We reported that about 60% of original plant cover has been lost between 2005 and 2015. It was observed that availability of surface water bodies played a crucial role in influencing the distribution of identified medicinal plants. The nearest neighbour analysis gave a nearest neighbour index of 0.695 at p=0.000003 and z-score of -4.70314. This shows that the observed random distribution of medicinal plants in the study area was statistically significant. It has been observed that random patterns are usually associated with natural occurrences. The random spatial pattern confirms that these plants have not yet been affected by anthropogenic activities and hence need to be conserved there in the wild. Conclusion: There is need to leverage on conservation of medicinal plants for treating malaria in their natural habitats. Also, the need to ensure sustainable harvesting and other socio-ecological process to ensure these are not threatened to the extreme case of extinction in these communities. In the view of the above, we recommend that KWASU-Malete campus axis be monitored, proper urban planning initiatives implemented and ensure cultivation and preservation of these plants are incorporated into the greening efforts of the Kwara state government in this area.