Premunition in Plasmodium falciparum malaria

Malaria parasites have evolved to maintain a well-balanced relationship with their human hosts. This implies that they can partially escape from protective effector mechanisms of their hosts, but also that hosts can develop partial immunity to the parasite. This immunity requires repeated infections, takes years to develop and is usually of short duration. However, protective immunity to clinical malaria rather than infection may be of long duration. This natural acquired immunity is called premunition since a low parasitemia mostly persists in the presence of circulating antibodies to the various stages and in the absence of clinical disease. In children who do not have circulating antibodies to the parasite, premunition is probably caused by antitoxic immunity. These poor and slowly developing immune responses to malaria are partly due to immune evasion strategies of the parasite caused by antigenic polymorphism, shedding of parts of parasite proteins, cross-reactive epitopes of antigens of different developmental stages, prolonged exposure to endemic malaria and widespread restricted immunogenicity to defined antigens. Premunition relies on the cooperation between the parasite and human antibodies, leading to the induction of antibody dependent cellular inhibition (ADCI) of the intraerythrocytic growth of the parasite. The immunity, however, is not a sterilizing type in that the infection persists longer than the symptoms and individuals can exhibit relapses or recrudescences or become reinfected

Five insights from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 provides a rules-based synthesis of the available evidence on levels and trends in health outcomes, a diverse set of risk factors, and health system responses. GBD 2019 covered 204 countries and territories, as well as first administrative level disaggregations for 22 countries, from 1990 to 2019. Because GBD is highly standardised and comprehensive, spanning both fatal and non-fatal outcomes, and uses a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of hierarchical disease and injury causes, the study provides a powerful basis for detailed and broad insights on global health trends and emerging challenges. GBD 2019 incorporates data from 281 586 sources and provides more than 3.5 billion estimates of health outcome and health system measures of interest for global, national, and subnational policy dialogue. All GBD estimates are publicly available and adhere to the Guidelines on Accurate and Transparent Health Estimate Reporting. From this vast amount of information, five key insights that are important for health, social, and economic development strategies have been distilled. These insights are subject to the many limitations outlined in each of the component GBD capstone papers.Peer reviewe

A survey on parasitic contamination of leafy vegetables in Ihiala LGA of Anambra State, Nigeria

This study was designed to assess the degree of parasitic contamination of vegetables sold in some selected markets in Ihiala Local Government Area, Anambra State Nigeria between January and June 2014. Vegetable samples which includes Amaranthus spp (green leaf), Telfara Occidentalis (pumpkin leaf), Talinium triangulare (waterleaf), Solanum melongena (Gardenegg leaf) nd Ocimum gratissum (scent leaf) were bought and examined for parasitic contamination using wet preparation and Formal-ether Concentration Technique. Results obtained showed that of the 150 vegetables sampled, 66 (44%) had different parasitic stages. Solanum melongera (garden egg leaf) recorded highest contamination rate of 18 (60%), while Ocimum gratissum (scent leaf) was the least contaminated with 3 (10%) respectively. Parasiites encountered were Ascaris lumbricoides, Entamoeba histolytica, Strongyloi desstercoralis Trichuris trichura, hookworm, Taenia spp and Giardia lamblia with Entamoeba histolytica the most prevalent 17 (13.6%) while Trichuris trichura had the least prevalent with 2 (3.0%) respectively. The results showed that vegetables could be a potential source of parasitic infection, therefore thorough washing of all vegetables prior to consumption is recommended.Keywords: vegetable, markets, Ihiala LGA, parasites, contaminatio

Prevalence of Amoebiasis Infection amongst Primary School Children in Uli, Ihiala Local Government Area, Anambra State, Nigeria

This study assessed the prevalence of amoebiasis amongst primary school children in Uli, Ihiala Local Government Area, Anambra State. One hundred (100) randomly selected children from four schools, aged 4-15 years of both sexes were screened. Questionnaires were distributed and information on each child was recorded. The results revealed that 60% of the tested population was infected with amoebiasis. The rate of prevalence between sexes and age groups were statistically insignificant. Prevalence rate was 64% in males and 56% in females. The age bracket 8-11years showed the highest infection rate of 68.1%, while the age bracket 12-15years assumed the least prevalence of 50%. The rate of infection relating to parents’ occupation was significant to amoebiasis infection. Children belonging to trader/farmer parents had higher prevalence of 73.7% than those of the civil servants with 16.6%. There is high degree of correlation between sources of drinking water and toilet facilities and the prevalence rate of amoebiasis infection in Uli.Keywords: Amoebiasis Infection, prevalence, school children, Uli, Nigeria

Comparative Study on the Efficacy of three Commonly Used Antibiotics (Nalidixic Acid, Ciprofloxacin and Ofloxacin) against Urinary Coliform

The antibacterial in vitro-activity of Nalidixic acid, Ciprofloxacin and Ofloxacin were studied against 100 strains of urinary isolates between June 2012 and July 2013. Of the total number of  100 urine samples screened from different respondents, 60 isolates were positive for coliform organisms, 24 tested for non-coliform organisms while 16(16%) yielded no bacterial growth. Urinary coliforms isolated were highly susceptible to ciprofloxacine 30(50%) followed by ofloxacin 26(43.3%) and had a high resistance to chloramphenicol 56(43.3%) respectively. Non-coliform organisms also  exhibited  the  same  pattern  of  resistance  as  coliform  organisms  but  showed  high  resistance  to  both chloramphenicol and streptomycin with  22(91.7%) respectively. Escherichia coli showed  highest incidence occurrence of (50%) while citrobacter.spp recorded least with (10%). Females were more infected than the male respondents and infection most common in age bracket 20-23years. The treatment success was neither dependent on age nor sex. Therefore, it was concluded that ciprofloxacine is the best first line antibiotic, effective for urinary tract infection (U.T.I) in this region.Keywords: Urinary tract infection, Coliform and antibiotics