HIV/AIDS Awareness Amongst Female Adolescents in Owerri

Objective: The objective of this study was to ascertain the level of awareness, knowledge and attitude of female secondary school students to the disease.Method: Pre tested structured questionnaires were distributed to randomly selected female students of four secondary schools in Owerri .Results: The mean age of the students was 15.7 years. All the students knew about the disease getting most of their information from television (31.7%) and radio (27.2%).The aetiological agent of HIV/AIDS was known by 76.3% of the students while blood test was correctly identified as the best method of diagnosis. Only 49.8% mentioned the condom as a method of prevention .The routes of transmission mentioned were blood transfusion 91%,sharing of needles and syringes 91.9% and sexual intercourse 85.2% and mother to child transmission by 69.3% of the students. Methods of prevention of mother to child transmission mentioned were the use of anti retroviral drugs in pregnancy( 41.6%),avoidance of breast feeding( 53%), giving anti retroviraldrugs to the newborn (34.2%) and delivery by caesarean section( 19.4%) .The use of strong antibiotics in pregnancy was wrongly identified as a method of preventing mother to child transmission by 47.1% of the students..Conclusion: The level of awareness is high but there still exists large gaps in knowledge which suggest that more effort should be put into imparting more detailed information to the students

Awareness and use of emergency contraception by students of Federal University of Technology, Owerri

Questionnaires were distributed to 335 randomly selected female students of Federal University of Technology Owerri in order to determine the awareness, knowledge and sources of information on emergency contraception. It was found that 29.5% of the respondents had had an induced abortion while 74.6% had used family planning .The percentage that correctly identified postinor, oral contraceptive and intra uterine contraceptive as methods of emergency contraception was 9;15.7; and 4.3 % respectively. Only 16.5% knew the correct timing of emergency contraception and the main sources of information were doctors (19%) and pharmacists (15.8%) The potential benefits of emergency contraception remain largely untapped .It is suggested that all fresh students should be given talks on family planning as part of their orientation

Reasons for, and timing of ultrasound requests in pregnant women in Owerri south eastern Nigeria

Although ultrasonography is an important investigation in obstetrics not much information is available about its use in developing countries. The study is across sectional questionnaire study of two hundred and fifty pregnant women who presented for ultrasound to the St Elizabeth hospital ultrasound centre between January 1st and June 30th 2010.Most of the patients were aged between 20-29(58%), married (93.2%), had 1-4 children (52.4%), and tertiary education (55.6%). The major indications were determination of fetal well being, dating and viability determination in that order. Most of the patients presented in the third trimester and only 66 (26.4%) presented on or before 22 weeks the ideal time for anomaly scan. It is concluded that physicians should be better educated so that they can refer patientsearlier to benefit maximally from ultrasound scanning. There is also a need for more studies on ultrasound in developing countries

Stillbirths at the Federal Medical Center Owerri

Background: A stillbirth is a calamity and causes great distress both to parents and to the attending obstetrician or midwife. There is a paucity of information about stillbirths in Imo State, Nigeria. Aim : This study is to determine the causes and rate of stillbirths in Federal Medical Centre Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. Method: This is a retrospective study of 296 stillbirths at st Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, between 1 of January2000 st and December 31 2004. Results: The stillbirth rate was 59.6/1000 deliveries. Most cases,208(72.7%), occurred in unbooked patients and nullipara accounted for 34.4% of cases. Most 126(44.1%) cases were in the 26-30 year age range and the major risk factors were pre-eclampsia 40(13.9%),abruptio placentae 39(13.6%), prolonged obstructed labour 30(10.5%)and prolonged pregnancy 28(9.8%). Conclusion: Most cases of stillbirth were preventable and could be avoided by simple measures like antenatal care booking, delivery under the care of skilled personnel and early referral to centres that could perform caesarean section. The role of congenital abnormalities needs to be researched as the absence of postmortem examination made it impossible to determine their contribution. Key words: Stillbirths, causes, Tertiary Centre, Nigeria

Pattern of Ultrasound Scanning in Owerri South Eastern Nigeria

BACKGROUND: The gynaecologist is called upon daily to diagnose pelvic pathologies. Ultrasound is a useful, safe and widely used method of investigation of such problems.OBJECTIVE: To determine the indications and findings of pelvic ultrasound in Owerri, South Eastern Nigeria.METHOD: Two hundred and fifty consecutive women referred for pelvic ultrasound in Owerri South Eastern Nigeria were examined by abdominal and transvaginal ultrasound.RESULTS: Most 148(59.2%) of the patients were nulliparous and majority 108(43.2%) were in the 30-39year age group. Doctors referred most 164(64%) of the patients, while 74(29.6%) were self referred. The most common indication was ‘to check the womb’ in 89(35.6%) of cases followed by threatened abortion in 30(12%) of patients. The most common post ultrasound diagnosis was ‘normal uterus’ in 111(44.4%) while fibromyoma was second with 41(16.4%) of patients. On the whole abnormalities were picked up in 36.4% of patients.CONCLUSION: We conclude that pelvic ultrasound even when not originating from the doctor should be encouraged because of the significant number of abnormalities detected. These could then be treated with greater success while they are still small

Antenatal Care Booking Pattern at a Tertiary Hospital in South- Eastern Nigeria

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HIV/AIDS: What do secondary school students know and think ?

Objective: To determine the level of awareness, knowledge and attitude of secondary school students in Owerri to HIV/AIDS. Methods: Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to six hundred randomly selected secondary school students from four secondary schools and the results were analyzed. Results: There was no significant difference in results from both sexes. All the students were aware of the disease. Viral aetiology was mentioned by 77.2% of all the students while 74.8% and 85.4% mentioned mother- to- child transmission and sexual intercourse respectively as modes of transmission. Blood transfusion and sharing of needles and syringes were mentioned by 92.8 % and 96.4% of the students respectively. Only 58.1% knew about the condom as a method of prevention. The students demonstrated a poor attitude to HIV/AIDS positive patients as 78.2% would not employ them while 10.6% want them isolated and 36.8% would avoid them. Mass media ;television ( (32.4% ) , radio ( 23.5%)) and health sources ( 26,1% ) were the major means of information. Conclusion: Because of the deficiencies in knowledge and the poor attitude of the students, these highlighted areas should be emphasized in media adverts. The introduction of reproductive health studies in secondary school curricula may also help in addressing these identified deficiencies. Keywords: Knowledge, Awareness, Attitude, HIV/AIDS, AdolescentsPort Harcourt Medical Journal Vol. 2 (3) 2008: pp. 238-24