Depression amongst healthcare workers in Maiduguri, north-eastern Nigeria

Objective: Very few studies reported the high prevalence of emotional reactions amongst healthcare workers, in sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of depression among health care workers in two tertiary health institutions in Maiduguri, north-Eastern Nigeria.Methods: In this comparative, cross-sectional study, we used a stratified sampling technique to recruit 370 healthcare workers (clinical and non-clinical staff) from university teaching hospital, and Federal Neuro-psychiatric Hospital, Maiduguri, Borno State, north-east Nigeria. The participants completed a semi-structured socio-demographic questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II).Results: Twenty (10.7%) and 14 (7.6%) clinical and non-clinical health care workers, respectively had depression (÷2 = 1.096, df = 1, ñ = 0.295). The prevalence of depression in males and females were 7.8% and 26.9%, respectively. Gender had a significant association with depression (÷2 = 3.427, df = 1, ñ =0.043).Conclusion: For an effective healthcare delivery service, the psychological well-being of hospital workers must be improved. Hospital workers require skills on stress management techniques.Keywords: Depression, healthcare workers, Maiduguri, Nigeri

Evaluation of Effectiveness between Two Different Facilities for Drinking Water Having Different Water Sources for Removal of Free-Living Amoeba in Qalyubia Governorate, Egypt

Background: Conventional drinking water treatment plants (CDWTPs) and Ground water (GWTP) are the main 2 types of drinking water treatment using freshwater as a source for drinking water in Egypt. Objective: The Egyptian standards for drinking water denied the presence of any type of living protozoa in drinking water produced for human use. Martials and methods: 48 water bodies were selected from Benha and Kaha districts in Qalyubia Governorate, Egypt. Mean turbidity, pH, conductivity, temperature, ammonia, nitrite, iron, manganese, magnesium and residual chlorine were recorded in each water body from two sites. Centrifuged samples were cultured on non-nutrient agar plates with Escherichia coli. Positive sample isolates were subjected to DNA extraction and polymerase chain reaction using genus and speciesspecific primers targeting the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) and Mp2CL5 gene. Results: The prevalence of Naegleria species, N. fowleri and Acanthamoeba in the study area were 54.1% and 0% (N. fowleri and Acanthamoeba) of all sample examined. The removal of free-living amoebae from drinking water, it was shown that conventional DWTP (Benha) could get rid of 91% of FLAs present in the raw untreated water, while ground DWTP removed only 55.6% of these organisms. Conclusions: The conventional drinking water treatment system for surface water was better than that of only chlorine disinfection for ground water in removing free-living amoeba (FLAs). In general, the persistence of FLAs in drinking tap water unfortunately exerts public health hazards

Dust-Acoustic Solitary Waves in Magnetized Dusty Plasma with Dust Opposite Polarity

The nonlinear propagation of small but finite amplitude dust-acoustic solitary waves (DAWs) in magnetized collision less dusty plasma has been investigated. The fluid model is a four component magnetized dusty plasma, consisting of positive and negative dust species, isothermal electrons and ions in the presence of an external magnetic field. A reductive perturbation method was employed to obtain the Zakharov Kuznetsov (ZK) equation for the first-order potential. The effects of the presence of positively charged dust fluid, the external magnetic field, and the obliqueness are obtained. The results of the present investigation may be applicable to some plasma environments, such as cometary tails, upper mesosphere and Jupiter\u27s magnetosphere

Developing and implementing mental health policy in Zanzibar, a low income country off the coast of East Africa

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Zanzibar Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, concerned about mental health in the country, requested technical assistance from WHO in 1997.</p> <p>Aims</p> <p>This article describes the facilitation over many years by a WHO Collaborating Centre, of sustainable mental health developments in Zanzibar, one of the poorest countries in the world, using systematic approaches to policy design and implementation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Based on intensive prior situation appraisal and consultation, a multi-faceted set of interventions combining situation appraisal to inform planning; sustained policy dialogue at Union and state levels; development of policy and legislation, development of strategic action plans, establishment of intersectoral national mental health implementation committee, establishment of national mental health coordination system, integration of mental health into primary care, strengthening of primary-secondary care liaison, rationalisation and strengthening of secondary care system, ensuring adequate supply of medicines, use of good practice guidelines and health information systems, development of services for people with intellectual disability, establishment of formal mechanism for close liaison between the mental health services and other governmental, non-governmental and traditional sectors, mental health promotion, suicide prevention, and research and development.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The policy and legislation introduced in 1999 have resulted in enhanced mental health activities over the ensuing decade, within a setting of extreme low resource. However, advances ebb and flow and continued efforts are required to maintain progress and continue mental health developments. Lessons learnt have informed the development of mental health policies in neighbouring countries.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A multi-faceted and comprehensive programme can be effective in achieving considerable strengthening of mental health programmes and services even in extremely low resource settings, but requires sustained input and advocacy if gains are to be maintained and enhanced.</p

Solitary, Explosive, Rational and Elliptic Doubly Periodic Solutions for Nonlinear Electron-Acoustic Waves in the Earth’s Magnetotail Region with Cold Electron Fluid and Isothermal Ions

A theoretical investigation has been made of electron acoustic wave propagating in unmagnetized collisionless plasma consisting of a cold electron fluid and isothermal ions with two different temperatures obeying Boltzmann type distributions. Based on the pseudo-potential approach, large amplitude potential structures and the existence of Solitary waves are discussed. The reductive perturbation method has been employed to derive the Korteweg-de Vries equation for small but finite amplitude electrostatic waves. An algebraic method with computerized symbolic computation, which greatly exceeds the applicability of the existing tanh, extended tanh methods in obtaining a series of exact solutions of the KdV equation, is used here. Numerical studies have been made using plasma parameters close to those values corresponding to Earth’s plasma sheet boundary layer region reveals different solutions i.e., bell-shaped solitary pulses and singularity solutions at a finite point which called “blowup” solutions, Jacobi elliptic doubly periodic wave, a Weierstrass elliptic doubly periodic type solutions, in addition to the propagation of an explosive pulses. The result of the present investigation may be applicable to some plasma environments, such as earth’s magnetotail region and terrestrial magnetosphere