Knowledge, attitude and practice of blood culture: A cross sectional study among medical doctors in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital

Background: Blood culture is one of the most important investigations done in clinical microbiology laboratories. Not only has it been long recognized as the ggold standardh for diagnosis of Blood Stream Infections (BSIs), very important decisions regarding septicaemic patientsf management are based on it. Being a user-dependent diagnostic test, quality of results often depends on the performer.Aim: To study the knowledge, attitude and practice of blood culture among doctors in a Nigerian tertiary hospital.Materials and Methods: A pre-tested self-administered semi- structured questionnaire developed by the research team was used to access the biodata, knowledge, attitude and practice of blood culture among doctors in our institution.Results: Forty-eight (54.5%) out of the 88 doctors studied had good knowledge regarding blood culture, 34 (38.6%) moderate knowledge and 6 (6.8%) poor knowledge. Majority of the senior registrars (75.0%),  registrars (64.3%) and house officers (65.9%) studied had good  knowledge while majority of the consultants (75.0%) had moderate knowledge. Doctors from paediatrics (62.5%) and internal medicine (60.0%) departments had higher proportions with good knowledge  compared to those from surgery (57.9%) and obstetrics and gynaecology (45.0%) (p = 0.240). Majority of the doctors with <10 years experience as doctors (57.0%) had good knowledge compared to 33.3% recorded among those .10 years. Attitude and practice was generally positive.Conclusion: Through this study areas of unsatisfactory knowledge, attitude and practice of blood culture were identified.This will help in designing an educational intervention programme for the purpose of addressing identified problems areas in blood culture.KEYWORDS: Blood culture, Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Doctor

Age and sex prevalence of infectious dermatoses among primary school children in a rural South-Eastern Nigerian community

Introduction: Various dermatoses, due to their morbidity characteristics, have been shown to negatively impact on learning. The most epidemiologically important seem to be the infectious types because of their transmissibility and amenability to simple school-health measures. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and sex/age correlates of infectious dermatoses in a rural South-eastern Nigerian community.Methods: The pupils were proportionately recruited from the three primary schools based on school population. Stratified simple random samplingmethod was adopted and a table of random numbers was used to select required pupils from each arm. Clinical and laboratory examination wasdone to establish diagnoses of infectious skin disease. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 16. Results: The 400 pupils consisted of 153 males and 247 females. Age range was between 6 and 12 years. The prevalence of infectious  dermatoses was 72.3%. The five most prevalent clinical forms of infectious dermatoses, in order of decreasing prevalence, were tinea capitis (35.2%), scabies (10.5%), tinea corporis (5.8%), tinea pedis (5.5%), and impetigo (5.0%). More cases, generally, occurred among males than females  (80.4% vs 67.2%)); while some specific clinical types, pediculosis and seborrheic dermatitis, exhibited predilection for females. Pyodermas and scabies were significantly more prevalent in the 7-9 age-group; while tinea capitis, tinea corporis, seborrheic dermatitis and pediculosis were more associated with .10 age-group.Conclusion: Infectious dermatoses were highly prevalent in the surveyed population. Many of the clinical types exhibited sex- and age-specificity

Childhood Acute Bacterial Meningitis in Benin City, Nigeria

Childhood acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Nigeria. The usual practice of commencing antibiotic therapy before the complete laboratory result is available necessitates the knowledge of the current most frequent aetiologic agents of meningitis and the antibiogram in the local population.This study was undertaken to prospectively investigate childhood acute bacterial meningitis in patients attending the children emergency unit at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital. One hundred and fifty CSF specimens obtained from children suspected to have acute bacterial meningitis were analyzed using microscopy, culture, biochemical tests and latex agglutination tests. A total of 23 (15.3%) out of 150 were confirmed bacterial meningitis. Eleven (47.8%) out of the 23 cases were caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, 7 (30.4%) Haemophilus influenzae type b, 3 (13.0%) Neisseria meningitidis and 2 (8.7%) for others comprising of Staphylocuccus aureus and Klebssiella pneumoniae. No statistically significant association was established between ABM and variables like age <5 years, sex, social class and immunization status (p>0.05). Penicillin and ampicillin resistances were established among 16.7% and 11.1% of Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates respectively. There is need for periodic surveillance of prevalence, aetiology and antibiotic resistance pattern of childhood bacterial meningitis in order to optimize antibiotics management

Co‑infections of hepatitis B and C with human immunodeficiency virus among adult patients attending human immunodeficiency virus outpatients clinic in Benin City, Nigeria

Background: Hepatitis B and C viral co‑infections with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are known to affect progression, management, and outcome of HIV infection. This study was aimed to access the prevalence of hepatitis B and C co‑infections in HIV‑infected adult patients in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital with a view of understanding the gravity of this problem in the local population.Methods: The descriptive cross‑sectional study was carried out on 342 HIV‑infected adult patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy attending HIV Outpatients Clinic of University of Benin Teaching Hospital, between April and September, 2011. Patients’ sera were screened for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti‑hepatitis C virus (HCV) using immunochromatographic‑based kits. Clinical stage of HIV and CD4+ cell counts were equally evaluated. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.Results: Of the 324 HIV‑infected patients screened, 53 (15.5%) were positive for HBsAg, 24 (7.0%) positive for hepatitis C virus antibodies (HCV‑Ab), while 2 (0.6%) were positive for both viruses. Seroprevalence of HBsAg was higher in male (17.8%) than in female (14.7%) (χ2 = 0.49, P = 0.49), while the reverse is the case for HCV‑Ab; 7.1% for female and 6.7% for male (χ2 = 0.02, P = 0.88). Seroprevalences of HBsAg and HCV‑Ab were also higher among patients in World Health Organization disease stages 3–4 and patients with CD4+ cell count ≤200 cell/μl compared to those in stages 1–2 and with CD4+ cell count >200 cell/μl.Conclusion: Co‑infection with hepatitis B virus and HCV among HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients is still a problem in our environment. Screening for these viruses among HIV/AIDS patients will allow for early detection and proper management.Keywords: Benin, co‑infection, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrom

Inadequate Information in Laboratory Test Requisition in a Tertiary Hospital in Benin City, Nigeria

Aim: Laboratory investigations are important aspect of patient management and inadequate information or errors arising from the process of filling out laboratory Request Forms can impact significantly on the quality of laboratory result and ultimately on patient care.Objectives: This study examined the pattern of deficiencies in the laboratory test requisition by doctors at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria, with a view to suggesting strategies of reducing error rates in laboratory test requisition. Materials and Method: The study generated data through retrospective examination of a total of 3072 laboratory request forms submitted to the medical microbiology laboratory over a period of three months. The various deficiencies in terms of missing or incomplete information on patient’s identity, clinical details, identity of doctor, and information on specimen submitted were recorded from each request form. The data generated were subjected to statistical computation using SPSS version 16, while applying descriptive statistics for analysis.Results: A total of 3072 request forms were evaluated, 2995 (97.5%) had one or more deficiency in terms of missing or incorrectly stated information. A total of 1786 (48.1%) of the request form had one or more incomplete or missing information in respect of patient identity. One thousand six hundred and ninety nine (55.3%) of the forms had error in relation to clinical information. The identity of the doctor requesting the test was missing or incomplete on 883 (28.8%) of the forms. Majority of the request forms 2957 (96.3%) had no complete information about the specimen submitted to the laboratory. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that overall, the error rate in laboratory test requisition by doctors is very high in our environment. There is need therefore to adopt practical strategies and policies to reduce this trend. Key words: Information, laboratory, requisition, Hospital, Benin City

Obstetric outcomes of human Herpes virus‑2 infection among pregnant women in Benin, Nigeria

Objective: This study investigated the obstetric outcomes of herpes simplex virus (HSV‑2) infection among pregnant women.Materials and Methods: In this prospective cohort study, a total of 674 consenting pregnant women attending ante‑natal clinic in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and Central Hospital Benin were recruited between November 2011 and December, 2012. The women were screened for HSV‑1, and HSV‑2 using glycoprotein‑G‑based type‑specific Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay on archived blood samples; and were followed up to the delivery period and postnatal clinic. The HSV‑2‑seronegative participants underwent second blood sampling for HSV‑2 IgG and IgM assay during the delivery period. The patients were thus categorized into “HSV‑2 seropositive”, “HSV‑2–seronegative,” and “incident HSV‑2 infection” cohorts. The pregnancy outcomes were assessed by review of hospital records. Data analysis was with SPSS version 16 software. Results: Of 674 pregnant women surveyed, 312 (46.3%) were HSV‑2 seropositive; while 362 (56.7%) were HSV‑2 seronegative. Comparing the “HSV‑2 seropositive” and “HSV‑seronegative” groups, there were no significant differences in occurrence of low birth weight (LBW), prematurity, spontaneous abortions, and stillbirth events (P = 0.96; 0.95; 1.0; and 0.77, respectively). Comparing the “incident HSV‑2 infection” with the “HSV‑2 seronegative” groups, the relative risks of occurrence of LBW deliveries, preterm deliveries, and stillbirths were 12.6, 25.1, and 4.5, respectively.Conclusion: First episode HSV‑2 infection among pregnant women in Benin, Nigeria is associated with an increased risk of occurrence of spontaneous abortion, LBW delivery, stillbirths, and preterm delivery.Keywords: Benin, herpes simplex virus‑2, obstetrics outcomes, pregnant women, seroprevalenc