Attitude towards psychiatric treatment and referral pattern in the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital- A preliminary report

Objective: There is a paucity of literature on consultation-liaison psychiatry, in northern Nigeria. This study aimed to determine both the pattern of psychiatric referrals, and the attitudes of doctors toward the treatment of mental disorders in a teaching hospital, in northeast Nigeria. Method: In this cross-sectional survey, we used a modified version of the self-rated Kumar 12-item questionnaire and a basic socio-demographic questionnaire to assess a non-random convenient sample of 100 postgraduate resident doctors (with a response rate of 70%) from the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH). We subjected the dataobtained to descriptive statistical analysis, using EPI info (2003), to report averages. Results: A relatively low percentage (57.1%) of doctors acknowledged treating patients with mental disorders in their practice, with a higher proportion acknowledging referral (75%). Nearly one in five (17.6%) of the respondents were unaware that patients with functional illness could have psychological disorders. We found more awareness for psychotherapy (44.1%) than other non-pharmacological treatment interventions, while10.3% were ignorant of non-pharmacological forms of treatment for psychological problems. Conclusion: Although this is a preliminary report, the research reported here demonstrated that doctors in the teaching hospital concerned recognized the need for psychiatric consultation and referral. It is difficult to draw further conclusions because of the limitations of this study.Keywords: Consultation; Liaison; Psychiatry; northern Nigeri

Reporte de Pecari tajacu y Procyon lotor con anomalías cromáticas en el Estado de Guerrero, México

Este trabajo documenta el primer registro de anomalías cromáticas en el pecarí de collar (Pecari tajacu) y el tercero en el mapache (Procyon lotor) para México. Los hallazgos se realizaron durante el monitoreo realizado entre el 2009 y el 2021, utilizando cámaras-trampa, principalmente en la ecorregión de la Sierra Madre del Sur del estado de Guerrero, México. Procyon lotor fue registrado entre el 5 de noviembre y el 1 de diciembre de 2019, en vegetación riparia de bosque tropical caducifolio (17°47’35”N, 98°39’59”W, 1134 m de altitud). Mientras que Pecari tajacu se registró el 7 de junio y el 22 de julio del 2021 en una brecha saca cosecha abandonada (17°38’12”N, 100°40’50”W; 1532 m de altitud)

Performance of Secondary School Students in Maiduguri, Nigeria in the Community Screening Instrument for Dementia

Intellectual impairment is a devastating complication of many diseases, the consequences of which are far-reaching, particularly for young people in their most productive years. Limited data exists on the impact of cognitive impairment among young Nigerians; hence, this cross-sectional study set out to determine whether there are differences in the performance of normal Nigerian students on the Community Screening Instrument for Dementia (CSI-D) and whether such differences if any could be explained by age or educational attainment. The CSI-D was administered to a stratified simple random sample of one hundred and forty three normal students from a secondary school in Maiduguri, Nigeria to assess language, memory, registration, attention and calculation, recall, praxis and orientation. To estimate the degree of dysfunction in the study population, we choose a definition of neuropsychological impairment that was a function of each subject's cognitive test scores. Impairment was operationally defined by at least one score two standard deviations below the normative mean for a given test or two or more test scores at least one standard deviation below the mean. While a high prevalence (41.3%) of cognitive deficits was found using a generous criterion and obviously, the use of a more conservative definition of impairment lowered the number of cases identified as impaired to 16.1%. As expected, education as expressed in years of school attendance was positively correlated with higher scoring in total CSI-D. There was positive correlation between age in years and total CSI-D scores. Only one student (0.7%) scored 63 out of 63 total marks of the CSI-D. All the students obtained full scores with registration domain of the CSI-D. Abnormalities on the CSI-D in secondary school students should be interpreted with caution as the two criteria for abnormality scores yielded markedly different estimates of impairment.Keywords: Cognition, Community Screening Instrument for Dementia, Students, Nigeri

Consumer satisfaction with a federal health care service in Nigeria

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The diversity of meningococcal carriage across the african meningitis belt and the impact of vaccination with a group a meningococcal conjugate vaccine

Background. Study of meningococcal carriage is essential to understanding the epidemiology of Neisseria meningitidis infection. Methods. Twenty cross-sectional carriage surveys were conducted in 7 countries in the African meningitis belt; 5 surveys were conducted after introduction of a new serogroup A meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenAfriVac). Pharyngeal swab specimens were collected, and Neisseria species were identified by microbiological and molecular techniques. Results. A total of 1687 of 48 490 participants (3.4%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.2%-3.6%) carried meningococci. Carriage was more frequent in individuals aged 5-14 years, relative to those aged 15-29 years (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.41; 95% CI, 1.25-1.60); in males, relative to females (adjusted OR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.10-1.24); in individuals in rural areas, relative to those in urban areas (adjusted OR, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.28-1.63); and in the dry season, relative to the rainy season (adjusted OR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.37-1.75). Forty-eight percent of isolates had genes encoding disease-associated polysaccharide capsules; genogroup W predominated, and genogroup A was rare. Strain diversity was lower in countries in the center of the meningitis belt than in Senegal or Ethiopia. The prevalence of genogroup A fell from 0.7% to 0.02% in Chad following mass vaccination with MenAfriVac. Conclusions. The prevalence of meningococcal carriage in the African meningitis belt is lower than in industrialized countries and is very diverse and dynamic, even in the absence of vaccination