The role of blood transfusion on the prevalence of hepatitis c virus antibodies in children with Sickle Cell Anaemia in Enugu, south East Nigeria

Background: The hepatitis C Virus (HCV) has become an important cause of chronic liver disease and liver cancerworldwide. Blood transfusion is one of the importantmodes of transmission. There is need to study the prevalence among those at risk such as sickle cell anaemia (SCA) patients. Such information will broaden knowledge of the problemamong SCA patients transfusedwith blood in this part of the country. Objective: To determine the prevalence of HCV antibodies among children with SCA transfused with blood in Enugu, compared with their non transfused counterparts as well as the roles of blood transfusion and traditional surgery in the prevalence of HCV infection. Methodology: The study was conducted among 269 children with SCA attending the paediatrics sickle cell clinic at University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu,with 136 transfused SCA patients as subjects and 133 age and sexmatched non-transfused SCA who served as controls.Results: The results showed an HCV antibody prevalence of 6.6% among the transfused and 5.3% among the non-transfused (controls) SCA patients (P=0.610). There was positive association between number of transfusions and HCV seropositiviy, such that thosewho had received 4 ormore units of blood had a prevalencerate of more than 50% (P = 0.001). The influence of scarifications on the prevalence of antibodies to HCV (antiHCV) for the non transfused (controls)was statistically significant (P= 0.001). Conclusion: HCV infection is not uncommon in children with SCA. The prevalence of HCV infection in transfused SCA patients is not significantly higher than their age/sexmatched controls. Keywords: Blood transfusion,HepatitisC, Sickle cell anaemia

Demographic and Sociocultural Characteristics of Sickle Anaemia Children with Positive Hepatitis B Surface Antigenaemia in a Tertiary Health Facility in Enugu

Hepatitis B virus infection is contracted through contact with body fluid of infected persons. Patientswith sickle cell anaemia (SCA), a common haematological disorder inNigeria, have tendencies to visit traditional healerswho administer scarifications and ritualmarks thatmay expose themtoHBVinfection. To determine the demographic and socio-cultural characteristics of children with SCA infected withHBVat theUniversity ofNigeriaTeachingHospital Enugu. Two hundred and twenty one children aged 6months to 17years with SCA were recruited consecutively from October 2004 to April 2005. They were screened for HBsAg using ELISA method. There was no statistically difference in hepatitis B surface antigenaemia among different age group (P=0.907). Social class did not significantly influence the prevalence of HBsAg among subjects (p=0.887). Socio-cultural practices like circumcision and scarification did not influence the prevalence of HBsAg, (p=0.636) (p=0.771) respectively.Significantly highernumber of people fromlowest socioeconomic class  practice scarification (p=0.0001). Demographic and sociocultural factors do not appear to influence the prevalence of HBsAg among childrenwith SCAinEnugu,Nigeria. Sickle cell anaemia; Hepatitis B surface antigenaemia, Demographic, Sociocultural characteristicKeywords: Sickle cell anaemia; Hepatitis B surface antigenaemia, Demographic, Sociocultural characteristics

Industry Simulation Gateway on a Scalable Cloud

Large scale simulation experimentation typically requires significant computational resources due to an excessive number of simulation runs and replications to be performed. The traditional approach to provide such computational power, both in academic research and industry/business applications, was to use computing clusters or desktop grid resources. However, such resources not only require upfront capital investment but also lack the flexibility and scalability that is required to serve a variable number of clients/users efficiently. This paper presents how SakerGrid, a commercial desktop grid based simulation platform and its associated science gateway have been extended towards a scalable cloud computing solution. The integration of SakerGrid with the MiCADO automated deployment and autoscaling framework supports the execution of multiple simulation experiments by dynamically allocating virtual machines in the cloud in order to complete the experiment by a user-defined deadline

Sociodemographic Differences in the Distribution of Hepatitis C Virus Antibodies among Children with Sickle Cell Anaemia in Enugu, South East Nigeria

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has become an important cause of chronic liver disease and liver cancer worldwide. A study of the sociodemographic differences in the distribution of HCV antibodies (Anti-HCV) among those at risk will broaden knowledge of the problem among patients in this part of the country. Objective: To determine the sociodemographic differences in the distribution of HCV antibodies among transfused children with sickle cell anaemia (SCA) in Enugu and compare it with their non- transfused counterparts. Methodology: The study was conducted among two hundred and sixty-nine children with SCA attending the paediatrics sickle cell clinic at University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu, 136 transfused SCA patients as subjects and 133 age and sex matched non-transfused SCA as controls were studied. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the age and sex distribution of the anti-HCV positive subjects and controls P > 0.05. Majority of the subjects (66.7%) and control (71.4%) who tested positive were in lower socio-economic class. Conclusion: HCV infection is not uncommon in children with SCA. There is no significant difference in the sociodemographic characteristics of the HCV positive subjects and controls.Keywords: Sociodemographic, Hepatitis C, Sickle cell anaemi

Hepatitis B virus infection in Nigeria - A review

Background:Hepatitis B virus infection is a pandemic and chronic infection may lead to chronic liver diseases which are often lethal. This review was done to assess the status of hepatitis B virus infection in Nigeria. Materials and Method:Source of information was mainly from published works in Nigeria and elsewhere. The information was extracted over period of 5 months from May to December 2007. Result: Since over 30years when pioneer works were done in Nigeria to the recent tunes the prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection has remained very high. In Nigeria, the transmission of hepatitis B virus occurs mainly during childhood and all the risk factors (like blood transfusion, sexual promiscuity, lower socioecomic status etc) implicated elsewhere in the spread of the virus in the general population also play role in Nigeria. Conclusion: Reduction in the of hepatitis B virus infection could be achieved by public enlightenment campaign, mass immunization of the children and adults at risk while antiviral drugs and immunostimulatory therapy should be provided for those already infected