A Study on Cervical Cancer Screening Amongst Nurses in Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria

Cancer of the cervix is the commonest genital tract malignancy in the female, and it has been ranked second to breast cancer. It has positive association with infection of human papillomavirus. Cervical cancer incidence and mortality have declined substantially in western countries following the introduction of screening programmes. This present study investigated the knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses in Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) towards cervical cancer screening as they are important health personnel that are suppose to educate women on the need for cervical cancer screening. The study is a descriptive cross-sectional survey of the knowledge, attitude and practice of 200 nurses in LUTH towards cervical cancer screening. The results obtained showed that 99% of the respondents were aware of cervical cancer and that 92% of the respondents were also aware of the causative organism of cervical cancer (human papillomavirus). Their major sources of information were through electronic media (43.9%) and health professionals (37.4%). Furthermore, the respondents were quiet aware of Pap smear (91%) as one of the screening techniques of cervical cancer and had good attitudes (89%) towards Pap smear, but most of them had never done it before. The study further revealed that majority of the respondents did not know colposcopy as one of the screening techniques for cervical cancer. Finally, it has been made known from this study that nurses have good knowledge of cervical cancer but have limited understanding of the types of cervical cancer screening techniques and poor disposition towards undergoing cervical cancer screening. It may thus be recommended that institutions should periodically organise seminars and training for health personnel especially the nurses which form a group of professionals that should give health education to women about cervical cancer. This training may be done as part of the orientation programme to newly employed staff

Medication adherence in type 2 diabetes patients: study of patients in Alimosho General Hospital, Igando, Lagos, Nigeria.

Background: Poor adherence is an obstacle in therapeutic control of diabetes. Despite the advances in the treatment of diabetes mellitus over the years, diabetes places an immense burden on the individuals living with the condition, their families and the overall health care system.Objective: Evaluation of the impact of medication adherence on the clinical outcomes of type 2 diabetes patients at Alimosho general hospital, Igando Lagos state.Method: The medication adherence study was both descriptive (retrospective) and prospective. The retrospective study assessed the prevalence of medication non-adherence leading to poor glycemic control. This involved the review of case notes of one-hundred and fifty two randomly selected patients. Prospective study was done by counselling and educating the patients on medication adherence and assessing their medication adherence and the impact of medication adherence on glycemic control.Results: The proportions of females/males with type 2 DM was found to be 69% and 31% respectively. 51.32% of these patients viewed their medications to be unaffordable. 56.6% of the patient population were 61 years and above in age. There was a significant relationship between patient age, gender and adherence to medication. There was however no significant P ≥ 0.05 association between educational level and adherence. Health education and counselling resulted in adherence rate and clinical parameters improvements.Conclusion: Non-adherence is a major factor that could lead to morbidity and mortality in diabetic patients. The overall improvement in adherence rate of 86.8% was observed with a decline in non- adherence rate after interventions.Key words: Diabetes type 2, adherence, glycemic level, health education and counselling

The Knowledge and Attitude towards Childhood Immunization amongst Mothers Attending Antenatal Clinic in Lagos University Teaching Hospital

Immunization remains one of the most important public health interventions and a cost effective strategy to reduce both the morbidity and mortality associated with infectious diseases. Over two million deaths are delayed through immunization each year worldwide. Childhood immunization is an act of inducing immunity to a child by applying a vaccine that almost guarantees protection from many major diseases. This present study aims to assess the knowledge and attitude of mothers attending antenatal clinic in Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) towards childhood immunization as the findings obtained may serve as the basis for effective intervention. This study is a descriptive cross-sectional survey of the knowledge and attitude of 274 mothers attending antenatal clinics in LUTH towards childhood immunization between April and June, 2009. The results showed that almost all the respondents were aware of immunization and that immunization could prevent childhood illness (93.8%; 98.1%) respectively. However, some of the respondents (28.8%) felt immunization will make their children brilliant. A large percentage of the respondents (45.5%) thought that polio vaccines ought to be given five (5) times while only 8.6% knew it should be given four (4) times. There were significant (P<0.05) relationships between age of respondents; ethnicity; level of education; occupation and attitude to immunization. However, there was no significant (P>0.05) relationship between religion and attitude to immunization. Although majority of the mothers were aware of immunization services, their knowledge of immunization schedule as well as of vaccine preventable diseases is poor. A better understanding of routine immunization schedule is important in the design and implementation of immunization programmes. Educating mothers about the vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases, and improving their performance are recommended

The mutagenic potentials of potassium bromate and some commonly used food additives

Food additives are substances added to preserve flavour or improve the taste and appearance of food. The continuous consumption of these food additives could be hazardous to human health. Food additives including sodium bicarbonate, sodium benzoate, ammonium bicarbonate and potassium bromate were subjected to the Ames Spot Forward Mutation Assay using Escherichia coli. The mutant strains of the organism were examined in the presence or absence of rat liver metabolizing enzymes. The result showed that sodium bicarbonate, sodium benzoate and ammonium bicarbonate produced no mutant strain of the organism and no alteration in the phenotypic characteristics of the organism as compared with potassium bromate and the standard mutagen – ethidium bromide, which produced mutant strains of the organism and altered the phenotypic characteristics of the organism. This revealed that potassium bromate is mutagenic in bacteria and could be said to possess carcinogenic potentials

Evaluation of the effects of the hydro-ethanolic root extract of Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides on hematological parameters and oxidative stress in cyclophosphamide treated rats

Background: The use of cyclophosphamide in cancer therapy is usually associated with challenging immunosuppression which exposes patients to increased risk of anemia and necessitating preventive measures during therapy. This study was carried out to investigate the efficacy of the hydro-ethanolic extract of the root of Z. zanthoxyloides in preventing and/or improving cyclophosphamide induced myelosuppression and oxidative stress in rats.Materials and Methods: Animals were divided into 6 groups of 6 rats each and were pretreated oral doses of 75, 150 and 225 mg/kg of the extract for 7 days and then co-administered with 2.5 mg/kg cyclophosphamide for 28 days.Results: The LD50 of the extract was found to be 1682.3 mg/kg. Phytochemical analysis of the plant extract showed the presence of tannins, saponins, alkaloids and flavonoids, glycosides, terpenoids and phenols. In the anti-oxidant enzyme assay, CAT was significantly (p < 0.05) increased for animals treated with 150 mg/kg+CP compared to 75 mg/kg+CP and 225 mg/kg+CP. GPx was significantly (p < 0.01) increased in rats treated with 75 mg/kg+CP compared to 150 mg/kg+CP and control. SOD was significantly (p < 0.01) increased in rats treated with 75 mg/kg+CP compared to the control. WBC was significantly (p < 0.05) reduced for 225 mg/kg, 225 mg/kg+CP (p < 0.001), 150 mg/kg+CP (p < 0.001), 75 mg/kg+CP (p < 0.001) and CP administered rats (p < 0.001) respectively compared to the control. LDL and CHOL were significantly reduced (p < 0.05) for rats treated with 75 mg/kg+CP, 225 mg/kg+CP and 225 mg/kg.Conclusion: Findings from this study demonstrates that the hydro-ethanolic root extract of Z. zanthoxyloides could be beneficial in hyperlipidemia and in cases of malignancies with abnormal cholesterol metabolism an effect which may be mediated via combating oxidative stress.Keywords: cyclophosphamide, phytochemical, antioxidant, hematological, hyperlipidemi

Predictive models of current, voltage, and power losses on electric transmission lines

A modern and civilized society is so much dependent on the use of electrical energy because it has been the most powerful vehicle for facilitating economic, industrial, and social developments. Electrical energy produced at power stations is transmitted to load centres from where it is distributed to its consumers through the use of transmission lines run from one place to another. As a result of the physical properties of the transmission medium, some of the transmitted power is lost to the surroundings. The overall effect of power losses on the system is a reduction in the quantity of power available to the consumers. An accurate knowledge of transmission losses is hinged on the ability to correctly predict the available current and voltage along transmission lines. Therefore, mathematical physics expressions depicting the evolution of current and voltage on a typical transmission line were formulated, and derived therefrom were models to predict available current and voltage, respectively, at any point on the transmission line. The predictive models evolved as explicit expressions of the space variable and they are in close agreement with empirical data and reality

The antimicrobial activities of some commonly used disinfectants on Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans

The disinfectants; SavlonR, JikR, Methylated spirit and kerosene were observed for their inhibitory activities on Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans. This was done bymeasuring the zone of inhibition of the disinfectants on the tested organisms. The results showed that Savlon was very effective at 100% concentration, as it inhibits the growth of P. aeruginosa and B.subtilis to the level of 47 and 58 mm, respectively. However, there was no inhibitory activity on C. albicans at this concentration. At 6.25% concentration, it had remarkable antimicrobial activity on theseorganisms with 10 and 16 mm levels of inhibition respectively. Jik at 100% concentration inhibits the growth of P. aeruginosa, B. subtilis and C. albicans to a level of 17, 15 and 18 mm, respectively. Afterdilution to 50% concentration, its inhibitory activity on P. aeruginosa and B. subtilis reduced to a level of 15 and 4 mm, respectively, and there was no inhibition on C. albicans. Methylated spirit showedinhibitory activity on P. aeruginosa, B. subtilis and C. albicans to a level of 20, 22 and 21 mm, respectively. Dilution of methylated spirit had no inhibition on the organisms. Kerosene was only effective on C. albicans with 69 mm zone of inhibition at 100% concentration. The study showed that Methylated spirit and Jik have inhibitory activities on both fungi and bacteria, while kerosene had only but better antifungal activity and Savlon had only antibacterial activity

Prescribing Pattern of Non-Steroidal Ant­‐inflammatory Drugs at the Outpatient Pharmacy Department of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Background: Non-steroidal Anti- inflammatory Drugs (NSAID), are among the most widely used and misused of all drugs. Though they provide symptomatic relief from pain and swelling in chronic joint diseases, they may cause renal impairment, especially in combination with other nephrotoxic agents.Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the prescription pattern of NSAID in the Out-patient Pharmacy Department of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Nigeria.Design: A total of 3800 prescriptions containing NSAIDs were analyzed for information on drug name, the number of NSAIDs per prescription, the presence of ACE inhibitors and diuretics alongside NSAIDs and NSAIDs prescribed in generic or brand names.Results: The results showed that Aspirin was the most frequently prescribed NSAID (62.2%) and 68.4% of the NSAIDs prescriptions studied were written in generic names. The total number of drugs per prescription was in most cases 3 or greater (84.6%). There were statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) associations between the individual NSAID prescribed and whether they were prescribed in generics or brand names; individual NSAID prescribed and the frequency of co-prescription with an ACE inhibitor and a diuretic; types of NSAID prescribed and the cost in Naira.Conclusion: Though most of the prescribers complied with WHO standard in their prescriptions vis a vis generic prescription, avoidance of polypharmacy and avoidance of drug interactions and contraindications, there is obvious need for interventional measures or strategies to improve rational prescribing for some of the prescribers tailored towards rational prescription and use of drugsKeywords: NSAID, Prescription, Outpatient, Adverse reaction, Aspirin