Knowledge, Attitude and Willingness to Screen Younger Infants for Sickle Cell Disease among Mothers attending Immunization Clinic in an Urban Community in Lagos, Nigeria

Background: Over 300,000 babies are born worldwide with sickle cell disease, mostly in low- and middle-income countries with the majority of these births in Africa. Nigeria has the largest population of people with sickle cell disease with about 150,000 children born with the disease every year. This study assessed the knowledge, attitude and willingness to screen younger infants for sickle cell disease among mothers attending immunization clinic in an urban community in Lagos, Nigeria.Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out at primary health care centres in Somolu Local Government Area in Lagos, Nigeria. Two hundred and ninety-one mother-infant pairs were consecutively recruited from August 2019 to January 2020. Data were collected with a pre-tested, interviewer-administered questionnaire. The analysis was done using SPSS version 22 software. Univariate and bivariate analysis were conducted with the level of significance set at p<0.05.Results: The mean age of respondents was 29.9 ± 5.4 years. Most 212 (72.9%) were aware of sickle cell disease. One hundred and fifty-one (71.2%) of those who were aware of sickle cell disease had good knowledge while 148 (69.8%) had a positive attitude towards SCD prevention. Majority of the respondents 180 (84.9%) were willing to screen their infants for sickle cell disease. A statistically significant association was found between good knowledge and positive attitude towards SCD (p<0.001).Conclusion: There is the need for increased education of mothers of younger infants attending routine immunization clinic about SCD for better knowledge, attitude and willingness for early infants screening of SCD

Associations of autozygosity with a broad range of human phenotypes

In many species, the offspring of related parents suffer reduced reproductive success, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. In humans, the importance of this effect has remained unclear, partly because reproduction between close relatives is both rare and frequently associated with confounding social factors. Here, using genomic inbreeding coefficients (F-ROH) for >1.4 million individuals, we show that F-ROH is significantly associated (p <0.0005) with apparently deleterious changes in 32 out of 100 traits analysed. These changes are associated with runs of homozygosity (ROH), but not with common variant homozygosity, suggesting that genetic variants associated with inbreeding depression are predominantly rare. The effect on fertility is striking: F-ROH equivalent to the offspring of first cousins is associated with a 55% decrease [95% CI 44-66%] in the odds of having children. Finally, the effects of F-ROH are confirmed within full-sibling pairs, where the variation in F-ROH is independent of all environmental confounding.Peer reviewe

Quality Evaluation of Maize Chips (Kokoro) Fortified with Cowpea Flour

Quality evaluation of “kokoro” fortified with cowpea flour (0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 %) was studied. The blends were reconstituted into a thick paste, manually moulded into kokoro stick and deep fried in hot vegetable oil at about 1700C for 5 minutes. These flour blends were analyzed for pasting, proximate and functional properties. The result showed that there was significant difference (p &lt; 0.05) in the proximate composition in all the bends. The protein content ranged from 15.20 – 23.03% while ash content was between 1.29 – 1.90%, which increased with increase in cowpea flour. The carbohydrate, fat and fiber contents decreased with values ranging from 59.17 – 65.00%, 3.24 – 4.40% and 2.23 – 2.96%, respectively. The pasting characteristics of the maize cowpea blends gave a peak viscosity ranging from 510 – 702 cp. There was no significant difference (p &gt; 0.05) in the pasting time and temperature. The functional properties reflected that water absorption, oil absorption and foaming capacity significantly increased with increase in cowpea flour with their values ranging from 186.67 – 210.00 g/100 g, 163.33 – 195.00 g/mg and 30.73 – 39.27% respectively. Bulk density also followed the same trend. Sample CAF (100% maize) reflected the highest dispersibility value (6.63%). No significant difference (p &gt; 0.05) was observed in the swelling capacity and least gelatinization concentration. Although the sensory result indicated that increase in cowpea flour does not show a significant difference (p &gt; 0.05) in the sensory parameters, the overall acceptability of the samples was highly rated.Keywords: Maize, cowpea, physicochemical properties, kokoro, fortification

Blood transfusion service in a tertiary hospital in sub- Saharan Africa during the COVID 19 pandemic: Experience from Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Blood transfusion services are as pivotal to the health system during a pandemic as before the pandemic. The effect of a pandemic ontransfusion services depends on the nature, potential for community spread and risk of transfusion transmissibility. As the total number of cases and deaths from COVID-19 rises, and to prevent the community spread of the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus, governments worldwide, as well as the Nigerian government, announced national lockdowns. Lockdowns have affected blood transfusion services. In Nigeria, blood transfusion services are still decentralized and tertiary health centres run independent transfusion units. The Lagos University Teaching Hospital blood transfusion unit was also impacted by the pandemic and the consequent lockdown. The major challenges experienced are in recruitment of voluntary blood donors, follow‐up of donors and patients with concomitant reduction in blood and blood component&nbsp; supply derived from family replacement donation, inventory and consumable management, staff safety and adequacy for emergency work. These challenges were compounded by the inadequate infrastructure and policies at the outset of the pandemic. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa should invest in health infrastructure and their transfusion services and encourage local manufacture of basic laboratory reagents and consumables. The blood transfusion services and units should put in place strategic continuity of operations plans (COOP) to respond adequately to challenges generated during a pandemic which should focus on shortage, wastage and supply of blood and components in a cost‐effective manner and human resource management. &nbsp; French title: Service de transfusion sanguine dans un hôpital tertiaire en Afrique subsaharienne pendant la pandémie COVID 19: Expérience de l'hôpital universitaire de Lagos, Nigéria Les services de transfusion sanguine sont aussi essentiels au système de santé pendant une pandémie qu'avant la pandémie. L'effet d'une pandémie sur les services transfusionnels dépend de la nature, du potentiel de propagation communautaire et du risque de transmissibilité transfusionnelle. Alors que le nombre total de cas et de décès dus au COVID-19 augmente et pour empêcher la propagation communautaire du virus SRAS-CoV-2, les gouvernements du monde entier, ainsi que le gouvernement nigérian, ont annoncé des verrouillages nationaux. Les verrouillages ont affecté les services de transfusion sanguine. Au Nigéria, les services de transfusion sanguine sont encore décentralisés et les centres de santé tertiaires gèrent des unités de transfusion indépendantes. L'unité de transfusion sanguine de l'hôpital universitaire de Lagos a également été touchée par la pandémie et le verrouillage qui en a résulté. Les principaux défis rencontrés concernent le recrutement de donneurs de sang volontaires, le suivi des donneurs et des patients avec une réduction concomitante de l'approvisionnement en sang et en composants sanguins provenant du don de remplacement familial, la gestion des stocks et des consommables, la sécurité du personnel et l'adéquation au travail d'urgence. Ces défis ont été aggravés par des infrastructures et des politiques inadéquates au début de la pandémie. Les pays d'Afrique subsaharienne devraient investir dans les infrastructures de santé et leurs services de transfusion et encourager la fabrication locale de réactifs et de consommables de laboratoire de base. Les services et unités de transfusion sanguine devraient mettre en place des plans stratégiques de continuité des opérations (COOP) pour répondre de manière adéquate aux défis générés pendant une pandémie, qui devraient se concentrer sur la pénurie, le gaspillage et l'approvisionnement en sang et en composants de manière rentable et la gestion des ressources humaines

Seroprevalence of Hepatitis C infection in HIV patients using a rapid one-step test strip kit

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV are transmitted via similar routes making co-infection with these viruses a common event. In addition, HIV infection and related immunosupression in patients with hepatitis C may be associated with more rapid progression of liver disease to cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease and death.Objective: The study is to determine the seroprevalence of HIV/HCV co-infection rate.Methods: A cross -sectional study was carried out from January to March 2010 at the HIV clinic of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. About 5 mls of blood sample was collected from each consenting participant. Sera were subjected to HCV rapid kit as recommended by the manufacturer (Dia Spot HCV one step test strip). The descriptive data was given as means ± standard deviation (SD). The chi-squared test was used for analytical assessment. The differences were considered statistically significant when P value obtained &lt; 0.05.Results: The overall seroprevalence rate of HIV/HCV co- infection was 3.3%.Only 6 of 194 female HIV subjects screened tested positive for HCV (3.1%), while 3 of 73 male subjects tested positive for HCV (4.1%) (P value 0.001). None of the 9 co-infected HIV/HCV participants (both male and female) had CD4 count of 350 and above, 3 had a count of 1-100 cells/ ìl., 4 had 100-200, while 2 had 201-350 .Conclusion: There  is  the  need  to  include  hepatitis  C  screening routinely in all HIV-infected patients undergoing  pre-HAART evaluation in HIV clinics in order to lower liver-related morbidity and mortality associated with them.Keywords: Seroprevalence, HIV/HCV co-infection, one step rapid ki

Increasing smallholders' intensity in cassava value web: effect on household food security in Southwest Nigeria

Although cassava production and processing is on the increase in Nigeria, there is still a large gap to be filled in meeting the food and raw material need of the country in terms of cassava products and by-products. The reported increase in area cultivated with cassava has not been translated to higher resource use efficiency or productivity, thus cassava smallholders have low physical and economic returns on their activities. This has serious implications for their well-being attributes, chiefly food security. A value web system, involving multiple enterprises within interconnected value chains, has been proposed as a strategy for smallholders to increase resource use efficiency and financial benefits. This study examined the levels of intensity by which cassava smallholders utilise the cassava biomass using available resources. It also isolated the determinants of the different levels of participation in the cassava biomass value web. The study further investigated the effect of higher intensity of cassava biomass utilisation by smallholders on the food security status of their households with respect to their calorie intake and dietary diversity. The study also profiled the different risks to food security based on the level of intensity of the smallholders' participation in the cassava value web. The research used data from a survey of 150 cassava smallholders, from 7 local government areas in Ogun state Nigeria. The results revealed that food security status of households using the cost of calorie index generally increased with increasing intensity of participation in the cassava value web. Dietary diversity of households also increased with an increase in the intensity of participation in the cassava web. Smallholders who are multitasking are also less vulnerable to food insecurity. The study also found that smallholders are rational and respond to changes in market conditions for their products and are willing to take more active roles in the cassava value web. Policy thrust should thus focus on increasing market opportunities for smallholders which will serve as incentives to take more active roles in the cassava value web, with consequence for their productivity, income and hence food security

A multi-layer functional genomic analysis to understand noncoding genetic variation in lipids

A major challenge of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) is to translate phenotypic associations into biological insights. Here, we integrate a large GWAS on blood lipids involving 1.6 million individuals from five ancestries with a wide array of functional genomic datasets to discover regulatory mechanisms underlying lipid associations. We first prioritize lipid-associated genes with expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) colocalizations and then add chromatin interaction data to narrow the search for functional genes. Polygenic enrichment analysis across 697 annotations from a host of tissues and cell types confirms the central role of the liver in lipid levels and highlights the selective enrichment of adipose-specific chromatin marks in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides. Overlapping transcription factor (TF) binding sites with lipid-associated loci identifies TFs relevant in lipid biology. In addition, we present an integrative framework to prioritize causal variants at GWAS loci, producing a comprehensive list of candidate causal genes and variants with multiple layers of functional evidence. We highlight two of the prioritized genes, CREBRF and RRBP1, which show convergent evidence across functional datasets supporting their roles in lipid biology.Diabetes mellitus: pathophysiological changes and therap

Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis

Background: Genetic variants within nearly 1000 loci are known to contribute to modulation of blood lipid levels. However, the biological pathways underlying these associations are frequently unknown, limiting understanding of these findings and hindering downstream translational efforts such as drug target discovery.Results: To expand our understanding of the underlying biological pathways and mechanisms controlling blood lipid levels, we leverage a large multi-ancestry meta-analysis (N=1,654,960) of blood lipids to prioritize putative causal genes for 2286 lipid associations using six gene prediction approaches. Using phenome-wide association (PheWAS) scans, we identify relationships of genetically predicted lipid levels to other diseases and conditions. We confirm known pleiotropic associations with cardiovascular phenotypes and determine novel associations, notably with cholelithiasis risk. We perform sex-stratified GWAS meta-analysis of lipid levels and show that 3-5% of autosomal lipid-associated loci demonstrate sex-biased effects. Finally, we report 21 novel lipid loci identified on the X chromosome. Many of the sex-biased autosomal and X chromosome lipid loci show pleiotropic associations with sex hormones, emphasizing the role of hormone regulation in lipid metabolism.Conclusions: Taken together, our findings provide insights into the biological mechanisms through which associated variants lead to altered lipid levels and potentially cardiovascular disease risk