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

Bruising in children: Evaluation in cases of suspected non-accidental injuries in children (physical child abuse)

Background: Bruises commonly occur in children and are often due to minor accidental injuries. However, they can also occur in bleeding disorders or inflicted injuries (physical abuse) and is often the most common visible manifestation of child physical abuse.Objective: This paper aims at highlighting the factors that should raise concern about nonaccidental injury (physical abuse) in children presenting with bruising and the approach to their evaluation.Method: This paper is based ona manual literature search and review of relevant papers sourced from Pubmed using the search terms “bruising, non-accidental injuries in children, evaluation.Conclusion: It is instructive to carefully and thoroughly evaluate bruise in children utilizing peer review and the necessary ancillary tests. It is also advisable to always consider other possible causes of bruise and bruise-like lesions in forming opinion about suspected bruise as implications of false diagnosis are grave.Keywords: Bruise, bruise-like lesions, physical child abuse, evaluatio