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.,

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Background: Family planning is a cost-effective strategy for achieving population development. Family planning uptake is low in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria. We assessed the perception, pattern of use, partner support and determinants of uptake of family planning methods among married women of reproductive age in rural communities of Ebonyi state. Methods: This is part of a baseline report of a quasi-experimental study. A total of 484 married women of reproductive age were recruited using multistage sampling method. Four focus group discussions (men and women) and pretested semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to collect information from the participants. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 software and thematic analysis. Chisquare test and logistic regression were carried out at 5% significance level. Results: Only 26.2% of respondents were currently using any method of family planning. The most commonly used method was the natural method (57%). Amongst those who reported using artificial methods, 32.7% used condoms, 27.3% used implant while 23.64 and 16.4% used injectables and pills respectively. Predictors of current use of any family planning method were: older age (AOR = 1.7, 95%CI = 1.01-3.00), having more than five children (AOR = 1.7, 95%CI = 1.05-2.83), minimum of secondary level of education for respondent (AOR = 3.3, CI = 1.60-6.96) and their husband/partner (AOR = 2.0, 95%CI = 1.05-3.92). Qualitative findings showed that only few families were using a method of family planning and those who did not practice family planning perceived it to interfere with God's plan for fruitfulness and to be counter-productive to household income due to decreased manpower for agricultural activities. Poor partner involvement and support for family planning was also cited as a deterrent by both male and female participants.

Background: Lassa fever is a viral hemorrhagic fever found predominantly in West Africa with the potential to cause approximately 5,000 deaths per year. However, good knowledge of the disease may reduce the infection rate. The study assessed the knowledge of Lassa fever and its determinants among traders in Izzi community Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 248 traders selected by simple random sampling method. Data were collected from respondents who gave their informed consent using interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using Chisquare test (Fisher's exact test where appropriate) for categorical variables and binary logistic regression for predictors of the outcome variables. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05 Results: Most of the respondents (40%) were within the age group of 21 -30 years. Majority of the Original Research Articletraders were females (64.1%), married (64.1%) and predominantly Christians (97.2%). A large proportion of the respondents (43.1%) had secondary education level, and 10.1% had no formal education. Awareness of Lassa fever was high 197 (79.4%) among the traders. The commonest source of information was radio 152 (61.3%), and only 15% of the respondents heard about Lassa fever from health workers. Overall knowledge of Lassa fever was poor: 173 (70%) of the traders had poor knowledge, and only 53 (21.4%) had excellent knowledge. Majority of the traders 160 (64.5%) ate rat's meat. Factors found to be significantly associated with knowledge of Lassa fever include gender, educational status, and consumption of rat. Predictors of adequate knowledge include male gender and completing tertiary education. Conclusion:The high level of awareness of Lassa fever in this study did not translate to adequate knowledge of the disease. The poor level of knowledge points towards a growing need to step up not just awareness of Lassa fever but also in-depth knowledge of the causes, mode of transmission and prevention of the disease through public education with special access to the female cohort.

Summary Background Indiscriminate antimicrobial use is one of the greatest contributors to antimicrobial resistance. A low level of asepsis in hospitals and inadequate laboratory support have been adduced as reasons for indiscriminate use of antimicrobials among surgical patients. At present, there are no guidelines for presumptive antibiotic use in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa. Aim Surgical inpatients at the study hospital were surveyed to determine the level of antimicrobial use and degree of compliance with prescription quality indicators. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among all surgical inpatients in May 2019 using a standardized tool developed by the University of Antwerp to assess the point prevalence of antimicrobials. Inpatients who were admitted from 08:00 h on the day of the survey were included. Data on patients' demographics, indication for antimicrobial use, reason for antimicrobial use, stop/review date, adherence to guidelines and laboratory use were collected. The prevalence of antimicrobial use in the surgical department was estimated. Results Eighty-two inpatients were included in the survey. Of these, 97.6% were receiving at least one antimicrobial agent. Only 5.4% of the prescriptions were targeted, and 37.6% of prescriptions were for empirical treatment of infections. Approximately half (50.7%) of the patients were receiving presumptive antibiotics, and 6% were receiving prophylactic antibiotics. In total, 58.7% of prescriptions were administered parenterally, and 98.2% of patients had documentation of a stop/review date. Metronidazole ( P =32.3%, T=29.2%), ceftriaxone ( P =28.4%, T=19.8%) and ciprofloxacin ( P =14.2%, T=14.6%) were the most common antimicrobials used. Conclusions There is a high rate of antimicrobial use among surgical inpatients, and the rate of indiscriminate antimicrobial prescribing among these patients needs to be reduced. This can be achieved by developing antimicrobial guidelines for presumptive antimicrobial therapy.