Adolescent girls’ understanding of tetanus infection and prevention: implications for the disease control in western Nigeria

Tetanus is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Nigeria is aiming to eliminate tetanus by maintaining coverage of routine vaccinations for infants and pregnant women, but little attention is given to the adolescents’ needs. This study assessed the understanding of adolescent girls about tetanus infection and prevention in order to provide information that may foster better policy. In this cross-sectional analytical study, 851 female adolescents were selected from eight secondary schools in Ibadan, south-west of Nigeria using a three-stage random sampling technique. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on demographic and socio-economic characteristics, history of tetanus vaccination and adolescents’ knowledge of tetanus infection. Mean age of respondents was 14.3±1.9 years. Only 3.1% had received tetanus toxoid injection one year prior to the study, most frequently following a wound or injury (65.4%). Though, 344 (40.4%) respondents claimed they knew tetanus as a serious neurological disease, only 46.5% correctly defined tetanus. Overall, the mean knowledge score was 4.8±3.1 and 64.7% of the respondents had poor knowledge. Academic class was significantly associated with knowledge; higher mean score among the senior (5.3±5.3) than junior classes (4.4±3.2); p< 0.001. Over half (56.2%) of the adolescents disagreed with the statement that tetanus immunisation can be given to students in the school premises. There is the need to improve immunisation campaigns against tetanus among adolescent girls and consider the introduction of school-based immunisation programmes if the elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus is to be achieved

The use of intermittent preventive treatment with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine in pregnancy in Ibadan, Nigeria: Implications for policy

Malaria in pregnancy (MIP) remains a major public health concern, inspite of the adoption of WHO recommended intermittent preventive treatment (IPTp) with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) for its control in Nigeria. Using interviewer administered questionnaires, information on knowledge of the burden, consequences and the use of SP for malaria control in pregnancy was obtained from 800 mothers within 24 h after delivery at two health centres in Ibadan. Women who attended antenatal care (ANC) at the secondary facility were less likely to demonstrate poor knowledge of causes (OR = 0.18, 95 % CI = 0.08, 0.38), consequences (OR = 0.37, 95 % CI = 0.24, 0.55) and control strategies (OR = 0.32, 95 % = 0.18, 0.59) compared with tertiary facility. Only 56.4 % of all the mothers were aware of IPTp SP as government policy for prevention of MIP out of which 16.9 % used IPTp SP in index pregnancy. Overall, only 18.4 % of all mothers used IPTp SP. Being unaware of the existing government policy and educational attainment of 9 years independently predicted non-usage of IPTp SP. This study revealed that the uptake of IPTp SP in pregnancy is poor in spite of good knowledge of burden of malaria in pregnancy and underscores the need to scale up awareness campaign and monitor implementation at all levels of health care. Key words: Malaria in pregnancy, intermittent preventive treatment, sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine

Evaluation of Olfactory and Gustatory Function of HIV Infected Women

Background. Compliance with medication requires good sense of smell and taste. Objective. To evaluate the olfactory and gustatory function of HIV infected women in Ibadan, Nigeria. Methods. A case control study of women comprising 83 HIV infected women and 79 HIV uninfected women. Subjective self-rating of taste and smell function was by visual analogue scale. Olfactory function was measured via olfactory threshold (OT), olfactory discrimination (OD), olfactory identification (OI), and TDI using “Sniffin’ sticks” kits and taste function (Total Taste Strips (TTS) score) measurement was by taste strips. Results. The mean age of the HIV infected women was 43.67 years ± 10.72 and control was 41.48 years ± 10.99. There was no significant difference in the self-reported assessment of smell (p=0.67) and taste (p=0.84) of HIV infected and uninfected women. Although the mean OT, OD, OI, TDI, and TTS scores of HIV infected and uninfected women were within the normosmic and normogeusic values, the values were significantly higher in the controls (p<0.05). Hyposmia was in 39.7% of subjects and 12.6% of controls while hypogeusia was in 15.7% of subjects and 1.3% of controls. Conclusions. Hyposmia and hypogeusia are commoner among the HIV infected women than the HIV uninfected women and the risk increases with an increased duration of highly active antiretroviral therapy