Sydenham’s chorea in a Nigerian girl: A case report

Sydenham chorea is a major manifestation of Rheumatic fever (RF). Chorea occurs primarily in children and is rare after the age of 20 years. Females are more often affected and it almost never occurs in post-pubertal males. Sydenham’s chorea is characterized by emotional lability, uncoordinated and erratic movements, and muscular weakness. The choreiform movements can be a source of irritation or a severe functional disability to the individual requiring appropriate management. The rarity of documentation of SC in sub-Saharan Africa raises the possibility of missed or misdiagnosis. We present the case of a 13 year old girl whose SC was initially misdiagnosed and conclude that though uncommon in Sub-Saharan Africa, SC requires proper diagnosis and prompt medical attention

Conference summary report of the 10th Annual General and Scientific Meeting of the Nigerian Society of Neonatal medicine (NISONM) held in Ibadan, Nigeria on 4th -7th July, 2017

The 10th Annual General and Scientific Meeting (AGSM) of the Nigerian Society of Neonatal Medicine (NISONM) took place in Ibadan, South -West Nigeria. The theme of the conference was: Imperatives in neonatal survival initiatives in Nigeria: The current state. The conference addressed a variety of topics relevant to newborn health from eminent speakers from across the globe. The four-day conference included preconference workshops and community mobilization/ health outreach in Lagelu local government area

Time to full enteral feeds in hospitalised preterm and very low birth weight infants in Nigeria and Kenya

\ua9 2024 Imam et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background Preterm (born < 37 weeks’ gestation) and very low birthweight (VLBW; <1.5kg) infants are at the greatest risk of morbidity and mortality within the first 28 days of life. Establishing full enteral feeds is a vital aspect of their clinical care. Evidence predominantly from high income countries shows that early and rapid advancement of feeds is safe and reduces length of hospital stay and adverse health outcomes. However, there are limited data on feeding practices and factors that influence the attainment of full enteral feeds among these vulnerable infants in sub-Saharan Africa. Aim To identify factors that influence the time to full enteral feeds, defined as tolerance of 120ml/ kg/day, in hospitalised preterm and VLBW infants in neonatal units in two sub-Saharan African countries. Methods Demographic and clinical variables were collected for newborns admitted to 7 neonatal units in Nigeria and Kenya over 6-months. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to identify factors independently associated with time to full enteral feeds. Results Of the 2280 newborn infants admitted, 484 were preterm and VLBW. Overall, 222/484 (45.8%) infants died with over half of the deaths (136/222; 61.7%) occurring before the first feed. The median (inter-quartile range) time to first feed was 46 (27, 72) hours of life and time to full enteral feeds (tFEF) was 8 (4.5,12) days with marked variation between neonatal units. Independent predictors of tFEF were time to first feed (unstandardised coefficient B 1.69; 95% CI 1.11 to 2.26; p value <0.001), gestational age (1.77; 0.72 to 2.81; <0.001), the occurrence of respiratory distress (-1.89; -3.50 to -0.79; <0.002) and necrotising enterocolitis (4.31; 1.00 to 7.62; <0.011). Conclusion The use of standardised feeding guidelines may decrease variations in clinical practice, shorten tFEF and thereby improve preterm and VLBW outcomes

Mothers' human papilloma virus knowledge and willingness to vaccinate their adolescent daughters in Lagos, Nigeria

Beatrice N Ezenwa,1 Mobolanle R Balogun,2 Ifeoma P Okafor2 1Department of Pediatrics, 68 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Lagos State, Nigeria; 2Department of Community Health and Primary Care, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria Introduction: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in sexually active adolescents and young women and has been implicated as a cause of the majority of cases of cervical cancer, which is the second most common cancer in women in Nigeria. HPV is preventable with the use of HPV vaccines. Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess mothers&#39; HPV knowledge and their willingness to vaccinate their adolescent daughters in Lagos, Nigeria. Materials and methods: This study was a community-based, descriptive cross-sectional study carried out in July, 2012 in Shomolu Local Government Area (LGA) of Lagos State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling method was employed to select the 290 respondents who participated in the study. Structured, pretested, interviewer-administered questionnaires were used for data collection. Data was analyzed with Epi-Info&trade; version 7. Results: The study revealed low awareness of HPV (27.9%) and HPV vaccines (19.7%) among the mothers that participated. There was a high awareness for cervical cancer but little knowledge of its link to HPV. Awareness and utilization of HPV vaccines increased with increasing educational level (P<0.05). There was a high willingness and intention among the mothers to vaccinate their girls (88.9%) and to recommend the vaccine to others (91.0%). Accessibility and affordability of the HPV vaccines were found to be possible barriers to future utilization of the vaccines. Conclusion: Despite low knowledge about HPV and HPV vaccines, mothers were willing to vaccinate their daughters. We recommend improving mothers&#39; knowledge by education and the possible inclusion of the vaccine in the national immunization schedule to eliminate the financial barrier. Keywords: HPV, vaccine, 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