Common oral conditions and correlates: an oral health survey in Kwara State Nigeria

Abstract Background Oral diseases are one of the most prevalent health problems today with distribution and severity varying in different parts of the world and within the same country. Oral health surveys are needed to determine prevalence of oral conditions and the nature and urgency of oral health interventions. A modified version of World Health Organisation pathfinder survey methods was used to determine prevalence of oral conditions amongst 150 respondents in two local government areas in Kwara State, Nigeria. This involved a stratified cluster sampling technique which identified the subgroups; location and certain age groups 5–6, 12 and 35–44 years age groups respectively. Clinical oral examination was carried out to determine the presence and types of common oral conditions among the respondents. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics and Chi square analysis at 5% level of significance. Results Among all the selected subjects 91.3% had an oral condition, while for the rural and urban population it was 93.3 and 89.3% respectively (p > 0.05). The most prevalent oral conditions were plaque and surface calculus found in 66.0% of the respondents respectively. Others are gingivitis (30.0%), enamel wear (15.0%) and dental caries (13.0%). The mean decayed missing filled teeth index was 0.26. The decayed missing filled teeth index did not show any significant difference between the rural and urban areas or male and female gender. The presence of calculus (p = 0.005) and gingivitis (0.015) was more in males than females. The presence of plaque (0.001) and calculus (0.006) was significantly more among the skilled workforce. The 12 year age group had significantly more cases of plaque, calculus and gingivitis while there were more cases of enamel wear among the 35–44 year olds compared with other age groups. There were more cases of trauma (87.5%) seen in urban than rural location (p = 0.029). Conclusion Oral health in selected communities of Kwara State is suboptimal requiring intervention. The presence of oral conditions is influenced by age, occupation, location and gender

Oral health status of pregnant women in Ilorin, Nigeria

Oral diseases have been shown to negatively affect pregnancy outcomes, yet, routine oral health care is not a component of the antenatal care package in Nigeria. This study was designed to describe the pattern of the oral conditions in pregnancy compared to the non-pregnant controls. Two hundred and twenty-five pregnant women and 166 non-pregnant controls were studied from two healthcare facilities in Ilorin. Oral-related complaints were assessed in the pregnant population while both of the groups had an oral cavity examination. The mean age of the respondents was 28.24 years ±4.77 and 80% had at least a secondary school level of education. The prevalence of oral complaints among the pregnant women was 19.1%. Gingivitis was more common among the pregnant women than the non-pregnant women, and more demonstrable on examination. Oral healthcare should be a component of the antenatal care in our environment. Impact statement What is already known on this subject? Women experience oral disorders in pregnancy, which may be worsened by the physiological changes in pregnancy. What do the results of this study add? This study has demonstrated a higher prevalence of gingivitis in the pregnant women than in the non-pregnant women on oral examination. The signs of gingivitis were higher than its related complaints. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Therefore, dental care and an examination should be part of a routine antenatal care package to prevent the unwanted pregnancy outcomes that are related to oral disorders

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Altres ajuts: Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); Illumina; LifeArc; Medical Research Council (MRC); UKRI; Sepsis Research (the Fiona Elizabeth Agnew Trust); the Intensive Care Society, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship (223164/Z/21/Z); BBSRC Institute Program Support Grant to the Roslin Institute (BBS/E/D/20002172, BBS/E/D/10002070, BBS/E/D/30002275); UKRI grants (MC_PC_20004, MC_PC_19025, MC_PC_1905, MRNO2995X/1); UK Research and Innovation (MC_PC_20029); the Wellcome PhD training fellowship for clinicians (204979/Z/16/Z); the Edinburgh Clinical Academic Track (ECAT) programme; the National Institute for Health Research, the Wellcome Trust; the MRC; Cancer Research UK; the DHSC; NHS England; the Smilow family; the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (CTSA award number UL1TR001878); the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; National Institute on Aging (NIA U01AG009740); the National Institute on Aging (RC2 AG036495, RC4 AG039029); the Common Fund of the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health; NCI; NHGRI; NHLBI; NIDA; NIMH; NINDS.Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care or hospitalization after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes-including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)-in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease