Parity May Determine Levels of Some Antioxidant Minerals in Pregnancy: An Experience From Rural South‑Eastern Nigeria

Background: Maternal micronutrient and antioxidant status is critical to fetal growth and survival. Poor socioeconomic conditions in the rural areas portend undernutrition with inevitable micronutrients deficiencies. Presently, there are conflicting reports on the serum levels of some mineral antioxidants during pregnancy. Aim: To determine the serum concentrations of some antioxidant minerals - copper and manganese, in rural pregnant women of different parities. Subjects and Methods: This is a cross‑sectional study, involving 195 rural pregnant women, in different trimesters and parities. They were recruited from antenatal clinics of some rural health centres in south‑eastern Nigeria. The controls were 50 age‑matched, nonpregnant, nulliparous, and apparently healthy women, who were not menstruating at the time of sample collection. Results: The results showed that copper was nonsignificantly lower (P = 0.14), while manganese was significantly higher (P < 0.001) in pregnant women than nonpregnant women. Over gestation, there was no significant changes (P = 0.081; F = 2.268; r2 = 0.028) in copper concentrations as pregnancy progressed while manganese increased significantly (P < 0.001; F = 18.370; r2 = 0.195), and remained relatively so, throughout gestation. However, both antioxidants increased progressively and significantly as parity increased (P < 0.001).Conclusion: Parity influences the levels of these antioxidant minerals in pregnancy and therefore should play significant role in the determination of the actual dose of supplements, if need be, of these antioxidants during pregnancy. Indeed assessment and supplementation of copper and manganese during pregnancy should be individualized to avoid deleterious fetomaternal consequences.Keywords: Copper, manganese, parity, pregnancy, rural are

Parity related changes in obesity and some antioxidant vitamins in non-pregnant women of South-Eastern Nigeria

Background: The delivery of many children at short interval is associated with micronutrient depletion and weight gain. However, the relationship between the levels of the micronutrients and the body weight is yet to be ascertained.Objectives: To determine the relationship between parity, body weight and some antioxidant vitamins in non-pregnant Nigerian women.Patients and Methods: Randomly recruited 200 non-pregnant women, comprising 82 primiparous and 118 multiparous women completed the study. Their age, parity, mid-arm circumference (MAC), waist circumference (WC), weight, height and body mass index (BMI) were determined. The serum levels of vitamins A, C and E were assayed using standardmethods.Results: The mean BMI, WC and MAC of the multiparous subjects (parity = 3.0 ± 0.58) were significantly higher than that of the primiparous subjects (parity = 1), (P < 0.05, P < 0.01 and P < 0.01 respectively). Furthermore, there were statistically significant decrease in the vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E in multiparous compared with the primiparous women (P < 0.005, P < 0.05 and P < 0.005), respectively.Conclusion: Multiparty enhances weight gain, but depletes antioxidant vitamin micronutrients in non-pregnant Nigerian women

Seroprevalence and Correlates of Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Secondary School Children in Enugu, Nigeria

Background: Although children comprise a small fraction of the burden of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, which is a major global health challenge, a significant number of them develop chronic HCV infection and are at risk of its complications. Aim: The aim of the current study was to determine the prevalence and associated factors of HCV infection in school children in Enugu urban. Subjects and Methods: This was a cross‑sectional seroepidemiological study involving children aged 10–18 years selected using multistage systematic sampling in Enugu metropolis, Southeast Nigeria. The anti‑HCV was tested using a 3rd generation enzyme‑linked immunosorbent assay. Data were analyzed using SPSS Version 16.0 with the level of significance set at P < 0.05. Results: Four hundred and twenty children were selected and screened comprising 210 (50.0%) males and females. The seroprevalence of anti‑HCV was 4 (1.0%). Three (75%) out of the four positive cases for the anti‑HCV were females while one was a male giving a male to female ratio of 0.3–1. Traditional scarifications/tattoos were the putative riskfactors observed to be significantly associated with anti‑HCV seropositivity. Conclusion: This study has demonstrated an anti‑HCV seroprevalence of 1.0% among children aged 10–18 years in Enugu with traditional scarification as the predominant associated risk factor. Proper health education including school health education and promotion of behavioral change among the public on the practice of safe scarifications/tattoos should be encouraged in our setting.Keywords: Anti‑hepatitis C virus, Children, Prevalence, Risk factor

Parity‑related Changes in Body Weight May Influence the Zinc and Copper Status of Urban Pregnant Women: A Report from South Eastern Nigeria

Background: Micronutrient replacement is done indiscriminately, without recourse to peculiar socioeconomic and sociodemographic variables. Particularly, the relationship between parity, body weight, and some micronutrients has received minimal attention in Nigeria.Aim: To determine the relationship between parity, body weight, and some micronutrients during pregnancy.Subjects and Methods: This is a cross‑sectional study involving 130 pregnant women and 30 nonpregnant control. They were recruited from two health care facilities in Nigeria and grouped into nulliparous and multiparous. After a 24‑h dietary recall, the weight (W) and height (H) were measured. The body mass index (BMI) (W in kg/H in m2) was calculated. Serum copper and zinc were estimated using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer.Results: Multiparous nonpregnant subjects parity=3.0 (0.58) had higher weight (P=0.037) and BMI (P=0.035) than their nulliparous counterparts (parity=0). In addition, there were no significant difference in Cu and zinc levels between the two groups (P=0.243 and 0.402, respectively). Expectedly, weight and BMI increased as pregnancy progressed. There was no significant difference in Cu levels between the three trimesters in the nulliparous pregnant and multiparous pregnant subjects. In the pregnant nulliparous subjects, the Zn levels of the 2nd and 3rd trimesters were significantly lower than that of the nonpregnant nulliparous subjects (P<0.001 and 0.039, respectively). However, in multiparous pregnant subjects, only the 3rd trimester Zn level was significantly lower than that of the nonpregnant controls (P=0.017). Conclusion: Pregnancy weight gain is more pronounced in multiparous than nulliparous women. This parity‑related pattern only affects the serum zinc levels, a situation that should be taken into consideration when formulating policies for nutritional replacement.  Keywords: Africa, body mass index, copper, parity, pregnancy, zin

Copper and selenium status of healthy pregnant women in Enugu, southeastern Nigeria

Background: Copper and selenium are important trace elements in man. They function as antioxidants and play roles in oxido-reductase reactions. Several imported multivitamin preparations are given to our women during pregnancy and lactation to correct possible deficiencies.Objective: The aim of the study is to determine the serum level of these micronutrients (selenium and copper) in a cross section of pregnant women in Enugu, southeastern Nigeria.Materials and Methods: A cross section of 130 healthy pregnant women at different trimesters of pregnancy and 30 non-pregnant controls were selected from two health facilities in Enugu, southeastern Nigeria. Serum from the samples collected was assayed for copper and selenium using atomic absorption spectrophotometer.Results: The mean copper level increased (P = 0.018), while the selenium level decreased (P < 0.0001) as pregnancy advanced.Conclusion: High copper levels indicate that supplementation should not be undertaken during normal pregnancy. Dietary intake should be modified to ensure optimal selenium levels during pregnancy

POST-TRANSFUSION INFECTIONS IN SOUTH-EASTERN NIGERIA: CO-INFECTION OF HIV/HCV AMONG BLOOD DONORS IN ABAKALIKI URBAN.

One of the major problems in transfusion medical practice in the developing countries is the incidences of transfusion transmissible infections, especially viral infections. Some of these viral infections share similar transmission pathways, making co-infections of these viruses a possibility. We investigated the possible co-infection of two viral infections-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in 1,490 blood donors in a Teaching Hospital in a south-eastern state of Nigeria. This number was made up of 1384(92.9%) males and 106(7.1%) females. Antibodies to these viruses were detected using ELISA methods. Our results showed that 12(0.81%), 9(0.60%), and 2(0.13%) were positive for HIV, HCV, and both HIV and HCV respectively. Greater percentage of females than males were positive for both HIV and HCV (2.8% and 0.65% for HIV and 2.8% and 0.43% for HCV) while age group 21-30 showed highest frequency (38.5%). We advocate for wider mandatory pre-screening of blood donors, increased public health education and enlightenment on modes of transmission of these viral infections, as well as counseling of donors before screening

Prevalence of HIV infection among prospecting couples attending premarital clinic in Enugu, Nigeria

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