Zero malaria: a mirage or reality for populations of sub-Saharan Africa in health transition

The global burden of malaria continues to be a significant public health concern. Despite advances made in therapeutics for malaria, there continues to be high morbidity and mortality associated with this infectious disease. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the most affected by the disease, but unfortunately the region is burdened with indigent health systems. With the recent increase in lifestyle diseases, the region is currently in a health transition, complicating the situation by posing a double challenge to the already ailing health sector. In answer to the continuous challenge of malaria, the African Union has started a "zero malaria starts with me” campaign that seeks to personalize malaria prevention and bring it down to the grass-root level. This review discusses the contribution of sub-Saharan Africa, whose population is in a health transition, to malaria elimination. In addition, the review explores the challenges that health systems in these countries face, that may hinder the attainment of a zero-malaria goal

Evaluation of Zenith Tropospheric Delay Derived from Ray-Traced VMF3 Product over the West African Region Using GNSS Observations

The growing demand for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology has necessitated the establishment of a vast and ever-growing network of International GNSS Service (IGS) tracking stations worldwide. The IGS provides highly accurate and highly reliable daily time-series Zenith Tropospheric Delay (ZTD) products using data from the member sites towards the use of GNSS for precise geodetic, climatological, and meteorological applications. However, if for reasons like poor internet connectivity, equipment failure, and power outages, the IGS station is inaccessible or malfunctioning, and gaps are created in the data archive resulting in degrading the quality of the ZTD and precipitable water vapour (PWV) estimation. To address this challenge as a means of providing an alternative data source to improve the continuous availability of ZTD data and as a backup data in the event that the IGS site data are missing or unavailable in West Africa, this paper compares the sitewise operational Vienna Mapping Functions 3 (VMF3) ZTD product with the IGS final ZTD product over five IGS stations in West Africa. Eight different statistical evaluation metrics, such as the mean bias (MB), mean absolute error (MAE), root mean squared error (RMSE), Pearson correlation coefficient (r), coefficient of determination (r2), refined index of agreement (IAr), Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency (NSE), and the fraction of prediction within a factor of two (FAC2), are employed to determine the degree of agreement between the VMF3 and IGS tropospheric products. The results show that the VMF3-ZTD product performed excellently and matches very well with the IGS final ZTD product with an average MB, MAE, RMSE, r, r2, NSE, IAr, and FAC2 of 0.38 cm, 0.87 cm, 1.11 cm, 0.988, 0.976, 0.967, 0.992, and 1.00 (100%), respectively. This result is an indication that the VMF3-ZTD product is accurate enough to be used as an alternative source of ZTD data to augment the IGS final ZTD product for positioning and meteorological applications in West Africa

A sensitivity study of Surface Wind simulations over Coastal Ghana to selected Time Control and Nudging options in the Weather Research and Forecasting Model

Over the years, the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) has been gaining popularity as a low-cost alternative source of data for wind resource assessments. This paper investigates the impact of selected time control, and nudging options on wind simulations in WRF. We conducted 15 numerical experiments, combining 5 simulation run-times and 3 options for disabling nudging in the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) in WRF. Hourly wind speed and direction predictions were compared with actual measurements at 40 m, 50 m and 60 m a.g.l. From our results, we recommend that, for optimum performance, the method of disabling nudging in the PBL should be chosen with simulation run times in mind. For wind simulations in our study area, up to 2 days run-times with nudging disabled below 1600 m in model configurations gives the best wind speed predictions. However, disabling nudging below the model-calculated PBL height offers more consistent results and produces relatively less prediction error with longer run times

Anti-Inflammatory, Antioxidant, and Anthelmintic Activities of Ocimum basilicum (Sweet Basil) Fruits

Basil (Ocimum basilicum Linn.) is a plant that has found use in traditional medicine and household remedy against human ailments. The present study aimed at investigating hexane and ethanol fruit extracts of Ocimum basilicum Linn. for their phytoconstituents and anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anthelmintic activities. Phytochemical screenings were performed using standard protocols. Anti-inflammatory activities were assessed using the egg albumin denaturation method, while the antioxidant activities of the extracts were determined using DPPH scavenging, total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) assays. In vitro anthelmintic activity of both extracts was investigated against Eudrilus eugeniae (Earthworms). Column chromatography was employed to separate the least polar fraction A, using hexane as the mobile phase, which was analyzed using FTIR analysis. The preliminary phytochemical screening revealed the presence of alkaloids, phenols, saponins, glycosides, steroids, tannins, terpenoids, and flavonoids. The hexane and ethanol extracts exhibited high concentration-dependent anti-inflammatory activities, with their percentage inhibitions being 34.0 ± 0.01 and 17.6 ± 0.04 μg/mL, respectively. The hexane extract showed a higher concentration-dependent antioxidant activity (IC50 of 14.17 ± 1.15 μg/mL) compared to the ethanol extract (IC50 > 100.0 μg/mL) for the DPPH assay. The IC50 values of ethanol and hexane extracts were 623.5 ± 0.27 and >1000.0 μg/mL, respectively, for the H2O2 scavenging assay. TAC was determined to be 37.48 ± 0.09 and 18.81 ± 0.12 gAAE/100 g for ethanol and hexane extracts, respectively. Both extracts showed a higher concentration-dependent anthelmintic activity. Increasing the concentration increased the helmintic potency of the extracts. The results indicate that both hexane and ethanol extracts of Ocimum basilicum Linn. exhibit anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anthelmintic activities and support the traditional usage of this plant