Review of prostate cancer research in Nigeria

Prostate cancer (CaP) disparities in the black man calls for concerted research efforts. This review explores the trend and focus of CaP research activities in Nigeria, one of the ancestral nations for black men. It seeks to locate the place of the Nigerian research environment in the global progress on CaP disparities. Literature was reviewed mainly through a Pubmed search with the terms “prostate cancer”and “Nigeria”, as well as from internet and hard copies of journal pages

Determination of rubella IgG and IgM antibodies among women of child bearing age in Kano State, Nigeria

Rubella is an important Toga virus disease, causing significant human public health problem in Nigeria. In this study effort was made to determine rubella prevalence in women in Kano State. One thousand blood sera were tested with IgM specific Enzyme Immuno Assay (EIA) and IgGindirect solid phase ELISA based kits. Out of the 1000 samples, 663(66.30%) had IgG and 81(8.10%) had IgM antibodies. Ages 31 - 40 years had the highest IgG and IgM (20.10% and 4.80% prevalence respectively). The married women had the highest prevalence rates for both IgG (32.8%) and IgM (5.70%) antibodies. Occupationally, the housewives had 23.10% and 5.4% prevalence for IgG and IgM respectively, while the least came from the farmers (4.10%) for IgGand traders (0.00%) for IgM. Analysis of educational status showed that the non-formal group had highest prevalence with 26.1% for IgG and 5.0% for IgM, while the tertiary education group had the least, 12.5% for IgG and 0.2% for IgM. Out of the 688 infected pregnant women involved inthe study, 68.60% had IgG and 11.77% had IgM antibodies. Women in their first trimester of pregnancy recorded 26.74% prevalence for IgG and 6.83% for IgM antibodies. This study strongly suggests presence of rubella virus infections in Kano State. Adequate vaccination program for thesewomen is therefore reccommended.Keyword: Rubella virus, public health, antibody, pregnant women, congenital defects, Nigeri

Marked variability in institutional deliveries and neonatal outcomes during the COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the interventions to mitigate its spread impacted access to healthcare, including hospital births and newborn care. This study evaluated the impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures on newborn service utilization in Nigeria. Methods The records of women who delivered in hospitals and babies admitted to neonatal wards were retrospectively reviewed before (March 2019–February 2020) and during (March 2020–February 2021) the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in selected facilities in Nigeria. Results There was a nationwide reduction in institutional deliveries during the COVID-19 lockdown period in Nigeria, with 14 444 before and 11 723 during the lockdown—a decrease of 18.8%. The number of preterm admissions decreased during the lockdown period (30.6% during lockdown vs 32.6% pre-lockdown), but the percentage of outborn preterm admissions remained unchanged. Newborn admissions varied between zones with no consistent pattern. Although neonatal jaundice and prematurity remained the most common reasons for admission, severe perinatal asphyxia increased by nearly 50%. Neonatal mortality was significantly higher during the COVID-19 lockdown compared with pre-lockdown (110.6/1000 [11.1%] vs 91.4/1000 [9.1%], respectively; p=0.01). The odds of a newborn dying were about four times higher if delivered outside the facility during the lockdown (p<0.001). Conclusions The COVID-19 lockdown had markedly deleterious effects on healthcare seeking for deliveries and neonatal care that varied between zones with no consistent pattern