Cholera Epidemiology in Nigeria: an overview

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium, Vibrio cholera. Choleragenic V. cholera O1 and O139 are the only causative agents of the disease. The two most distinguishing epidemiologic features of the disease are its tendency to appear in explosive outbreaks and its predisposition to causing pandemics that may progressively affect many countries and spread into continents. Despite efforts to control cholera, the disease continues to occur as a major public health problem in many developing countries. Numerous studies over more than a century have made advances in the understanding of the disease and ways of treating patients, but the mechanism of emergence of new epidemic strains, and the ecosystem supporting regular epidemics, remain challenging to epidemiologists. In Nigeria, since the first appearance of epidemic cholera in 1972, intermittent outbreaks have been occurring. The later part of 2010 was marked with severe outbreak which started from the northern part of Nigeria, spreading to the other parts and involving approximately 3,000 cases and 781 deaths. Sporadic cases have also been reported. Although epidemiologic surveillance constitutes an important component of the public health response, publicly available surveillance data from Nigeria have been relatively limited to date. Based on existing relevant scientific literature on features of cholera, this paper presents a synopsis of cholera epidemiology emphasising the situation in Nigeria. Pan African Medical Journal 2012; 12:5

The burden, distribution and risk factors for cervical oncogenic human papilloma virus infection in HIV positive Nigerian women

Background: The expected reduction in cervical cancer incidence as a result of increased access to antiretroviral therapy is yet to be seen. In this study we investigated the effect of HIV infection and treatment on high-risk (hr) human papilloma virus (HPV) prevalence and distribution. Methods: Cervical cells from 515 (220 HIV positive and 295 HIV negative) women, recruited during community cervical cancer screening programme in states of Ogun and Lagos and at the cervical cancer screen clinic, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research Lagos were evaluated for the presence of 13 hr HPV genotypes by polymerase chain reaction based assay. Results: The prevalence of high-risk HPV was 19.6% in the studied population. HPV 16 (3.9%), 35 (3.5%), 58 (3.3%) and 31 (3.3%) were the most common hr HPV infections detected. We observed that the prevalence of hr HPV was higher in HIV positives (24.5%) than 15.9% in HIV negative women (OR = 1.7; 95% CI: 1.1-2.7). A multivariate logistic regression analysis showed a lower hr HPV prevalence in HIV positive women on antiretroviral drugs (OR = 0.4; 95% CI: 0.3-0.5) and with CD4 count of 500 and above (OR = 0.7; 95% CI: 0.5-0.8). A higher prevalence of hr HPV was also noted in HIV positive women with CD4 count <200 cells/mm3 (OR = 2.4; 95% CI: 1.7-5.9). Conclusion: HPV 16, 35, 58 and 31 genotypes were the most common hr HPV infection in our study group, which could be regarded as high risk general population sample; with higher prevalence of HPV 16 and 35 in HIV positive women than in HIV negative women. The use of antiretroviral drugs was found to be associated with a lower prevalence of hr HPV infection, compared to those not on treatment. This study raises important issues that should be further investigated to enable the development of robust cervical cancer prevention and control strategies for women in our setting

Prediction of functional proteins associated with the gut microbiome of an adult population in Lagos State, Nigeria

Background: The human gut microbiome is implicated in health and disease. Yet, its functions in healthy adults from a divergent population like those seen in Africa are quite unclear. We set to reveal the roles of the gut microbiome of a healthy rural and urban Yoruba population of Lagos State. Methodology: Sociodemographic and clinical data, and fecal samples were obtained from rural (n = 10) and urban (n = 10) participants. fecal DNA extraction was done using ZR Fecal DNA MiniPrep™ D6010 and metagenomic next generation sequencing performed on Illumina Miseq platform. Functional roles prediction and antibiotics resistance genes (ARGs) were done using the Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COG) and Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD) tools, respectively. The potential link between phenotypes and COG abundance were inferred using principal component analysis (PCA). Results: We found 12 (urban) and 11 (rural) COG classes of proteins from the gut microbes. Class E protein which denotes amino acid transport and metabolism was unique to urban respondents and was dominated by 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (45%) and asparagine synthase (30%), implying a high protein-based diet. Class S was found in both groups. COG families of proteins revealed the presence of exo-beta-1,3-glucanase (31%), pyruvate-decarboxylase, and thiamine pyrophosphate-requiring enzymes (22%) among the rural respondents’ indicative of carbohydrate-rich diets. In addition, uncharacterized protein linked to hypothetical functions was found in both. The COG proteins clustered with female sex, BMI (body mass index) and BP (blood pressure) for urban while for the rural populace, it clustered with height, BMI, and BP. CARD analysis showed ARGs in both groups (urban 90%; rural 10%) and all were Escherichia coli 16S rRNA (rrsB) mutation conferring resistance to streptomycin with gene variant model A523C n/a to aminoglycoside antibiotics. Conclusion: The study defined the classes of proteins from gut microbes of urban and rural respondents and highlighted the presence of uncharacterized proteins linked to hypothetical and unknown functions. Differences seen among the predicted roles appear to be driven by diet, clinical and sociodemographic factors. The higher abundance of ARGs observed in the urban population poses a serious public health concern with regards to the spread of antibiotic resistance

Evaluation of Annona muricata extract against Staphylococcus aureus isolate and in-silico activity of bioactive compounds against Capsular protein (Cap5O)

Abstract Background Staphylococcus aureus has prevailed against the majority of antibiotics currently in clinical use, making it a significant global public health problem. As a safer alternative, bioactive compounds have been explored. Annona muricata has been shown to possess antimicrobial activity. However, there are few reports on the molecular activity of A. muricata bioactive compounds against S. aureus. Thus, this study was aimed at evaluating the antimicrobial activity of its crude extract as well as investigating the potential of its bioactive compounds against the Cap5O capsular polysaccharides (CPS) of S. aureus via molecular docking. Methods Collection of plant leaves, preparation of extracts, anti-nutrient analysis, phytochemical screening via crude method and gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometer (GC-MS), isolation and characterization of S. aureus and the antimicrobial activity test were all done using standard protocols. Molecular docking was done using the MCULE online tool with emphasis on docking scores, toxicity, and other properties. Results Crude screening of the extracts showed the presence of polyphenols, hydroxyanthraquinones, reducing compounds, flavonoids, saponins, glycosides, alkaloids, anthraquinones, phlobatannins and tannins in different concentrations. Anti-nutrient analysis showed the presence of allowable levels of evaluated anti-nutrients. GC-MS revealed a total of twenty-nine (29) bioactive compounds, out of which only 4 (13.80%) docked without toxicity and these were bicyclo[4.1.0]heptan-2-one 6-methyl, trichloromethane, carbonic acid 2-dimethylaminoethyl propyl ester, and 1-methyl-4-phenyl-5-thioxo-1,2,4-triazolidin-3-one on either the NAD-binding or C-terminal substrate binding domain of Cap5O. Conclusion Results obtained show that Cap5O could be a potential drug target for multi-drug resistant S. aureus, however, further studies aimed at evaluating these bioactive compounds individually and in combination are highly needed