Prescription Pattern of Antimalarial Drugs in Children Below 5 years in a Tertiary Health Institution in Nigeria

Background: This study examines the diagnosis of malaria and pattern of prescription of antimalarial drugs in the most vulnerable age group (the under 5 children) in the study environment in order to identify the possible shortcomings and suggest solutions so as to improve the treatment outcome in future. Methods: The hospital records of 430 children with malaria infection admitted for treatment in a chosen tertiary health facility between January to December 2005 were selected for study. Forty-eight case records were excluded due to incomplete information. Data on demographic, clinical features of disease, diagnostic procedures, drug administration and the treatment out come were collected from the patients\u2019 records. Results: Analysis of the data revealed that more male (213) than female (169) children were admitted for malaria treatment: Fever with convulsion (55.8%) was the commonest presenting symptoms, and anemia was the most frequent complications of malaria recorded. Chloroquine was found to be the most prescribed antimalarial agent and overall antemisinin-based drug was prescribed either as a first or second line treatment in only 18.2% of the cases. The death rate recorded was 16%. Conclusion: The pattern of antimalarial drugs prescription in the study center in most cases did not meet the recommended guidelines. The prescriptions were predominantly chloroquine, instead of artemisinin based. The death rate was comparatively high. Measures to raise the level of awareness among the practitioners on the current National policy on malaria treatment through seminars and workshops were suggested.Introduction: Cette \ue9tude examine le diagnostic du paludisme et le mod\ue8le de l\u2019ordonnance des m\ue9dicaments antipalud\ue9ens pour le groupe d\u2019\ue2ge le plus vuln\ue9rable (les enfants de moins de cinq ans), dans le but d\u2019 identifier les d\ue9faillances possibles et alors sugg\ue9rer des solutions pour ainsi am\ue9liorer les soins dans l\u2019avenir. M\ue9thodes: L\u2019\ue9tude a \ue9t\ue9 bas\ue9e sur les donn\ue9es de l\u2019h\uf4pital portant sur 430 enfants atteints du paludisme et hospitalis\ue9s dans des centres m\ue9dicaux s\ue9lectionn\ue9s de troisi\ue8me cat\ue9gorie, entre Janvier et D\ue9cembre, 2005. Quarante huit cas ont \ue9t\ue9 exclus pour l\u2019insuffisance d\u2019information. Les donn\ue9es d\ue9mographiques, les sympt\uf4mes des maladies, les proc\ue9dures du diagnostic, l\u2019administration de m\ue9dicaments et le r\ue9sultat des traitements ont \ue9t\ue9 collect\ue9s du registre des malades. R\ue9sultats: L\u2019analyse des donn\ue9es a r\ue9v\ue9l\ue9 que plus des gar\ue7ons (213) que des filles (169) ont \ue9t\ue9 hospitalis\ue9s pour les traitements du paludisme. La fi\ue8vre avec convulsions (55,8 pour cent) \ue9tait plus fr\ue9quente tandis que l\u2019an\ue9mie \ue9tait la complication palud\ue9enne la plus not\ue9e. Il a \ue9t\ue9 aussi not\ue9 que la chloroquine a \ue9t\ue9 le m\ue9dicament antipalud\ue9en le plus prescrit et que les m\ue9dicaments sp\ue9cialis\ue9s \ue0 base de l\u2019Art\ue9misinine ont \ue9t\ue9, en tout et pour tout, prescrits en premi\ue8re et en deuxi\ue8me positions de traitement couvrant ainsi 18,2 pour cent seulement des cas. Le taux de mortalit\ue9 \ue9tait \ue0 16 pour cent. Conclusion: Le mod\ue8le de la prescription des m\ue9dicaments antipalud\ue9ens, dans le centre de cette \ue9tude, n\u2019a pas atteint le niveau des recommandations dans beaucoup de cas. Les prescriptions \ue9taient en majorit\ue9 la chloroquine au lieu des m\ue9dicaments sp\ue9cialis\ue9s a base Art\ue9misinine. Le taux de mortalit\ue9 est relativement \ue9lev\ue9. Des mesures d\u2019intensifier la sensibilisation pour les praticiens a travers s\ue9minaire et ateliers sur la Nouvelle Politique Nationale sur le traitement du paludisme ont \ue9t\ue9 sugg\ue9r\ue9es

Kinetic Models for Drying Techniques—Food Materials

Drying operations can help in reducing the moisture content of food materials for avoidance of microbial growth and deterioration, for shelf life elongation, to minimize packaging and improving storage for easy transportation. Thin-layer drying of materials is necessary to understand the fundamental transport mechanism and a prerequisite to successfully simulate or scale up the whole process for optimization or control of the operating conditions. Re- searchers have shown that to rely solely on experimental drying practices without mathematical considerations for the drying kinetics, can significantly affect the efficiency of dryers, increase the cost of production, and reduce the quality of the dried product. An effective model is necessary for the process design, optimization, energy integration and control; hence, the use of mathematical models in finding the drying kinetics of agricultural products is very important. The statistical criteria in use for the evaluation of the best model(s) has it that coefficient of determination (R2) has to be close to unity while the rest statistical measures will have values tending to zero. In this work, the essence of drying using thin-layer, general approaches to modeling for food drying mechanisms thin layer drying models and optimization of the drying processes have been discussed

Structural Evolution, Magmatism, and Effects of Hydrocarbon Maturation in Lower Benue Trough, Nigeria: A Case Study of Lokpaukwu, Uturu, and Ishiagu.

The Benue Trough of Nigeria has been affected by at least two episodes of deformation in the Cenomanian and Santonian times. The deformations generated NE-SW trending structural features, which accommodated massive igneous activities in the Trough. The Lokpaukwu–Uturu–Ishiagu magmatic belt of the Lower Benue Trough is an example of these structurally controlled igneous intrusions. The igneous rocks are predominantly intermediate to basic in character, rich in plagioclase and ferromagnesian minerals and have impacted high maturity on the source sediments due to thermal effect. Total organic carbon contents of the mudrock inclusions in the pyroclastics range from 0.60%wt – 0.86%wt. It is apparent that prior to the eruption, an initial shaly source rock with higher organic carbon content was cooked during the eruption, thereby reducing the source quality of the rocks. Thus, heat from the igneous intrusions raised the temperature of the source rocks above the liquid oil window limit, and thus inhibited the preservation of the essential constituents of petroleum in the shales within the Lower Benue Trough

The role of the entrepreneurial university in building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in a post conflict economy: an exploratory study of Rwanda

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the entrepreneurial university in supporting the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in a post conflict, transitional economy. We developed a cross case analysis to identify common themes and patterns in the data. Our findings demonstrate that in a post conflict, transitional economy entrepreneurial universities entrepreneurial ecosystem development is constrained by a number of institutional factors including, structures, systems, leadership, strategies, and culture. We further identify that, when an entrepreneurial ecosystem system has been destroyed during conflict, these constraints present significant challenges to the evolution of the entrepreneurial ecosystem post conflict. Second, in a departure from other studies, our findings also outline the role of the entrepreneurial university in the unique evolution of the post conflict entrepreneurial ecosystem in Rwanda. We identify that the entrepreneurial ecosystem evolves through a number of stages including, embryonic, destruction, formation, and capacity building stages

Pore Fluid and Lithology Discrimination of a Well in the Niger Delta Region using Elastic Parameters

With respect to the high uncertainties associated with methods of determining lithology and pore fluid using well logs, quantitative rock physics analyses was used to determine the lithology and pore fluid of a reservoir in the Niger Delta. Inaccurate prediction of lithology and pore fluid results in the inaccurate determination of other petrophysical properties and parameters such as porosity, permeability, net pay, etc. The primary objective of this research is to predict lithology and pore fluid using rock physics analysis. However, reservoir zones were also predicted. Density, compressional wave velocity and shear wave velocity logs were used as input to calculate elastic parameters such as velocity ratio, Poisson’s ratio and Bulk Modulus. The calculated velocity ratio log was used to differentiate between sand and shale. Poisson’s ratio and velocity ratio using the Goodway interpretation template was carried out and used to delineate pore fluid content; gas sand, oil sand and sandstone formation from cross-plot analysis

Tannin content and dietry effects of brown coat colored sorghum on the performance and turkey poults

No Abstract. Animal Production Research Avancees Vol. 3 (2) 2007: pp. 86-9

Performance of weaner rabbits fed diets containing milled toasted pigeon pea seeds

No Abstract. BAHPA Vol. 54 (3) 2006: pp. 218-22