Parallel and overlapping Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Hepatitis B and C virus Infections among pregnant women in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria

Background: Risk factors that are associated with HIV infection are also associated with HBV and HCV infections in sub-Saharan Africa. The HIV-infected pregnant cohort represents a unique population and infection with the hepatitis virus is considered a public health problem worldwide. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Hepatitis B and C virus parallel and overlapping infections among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Method: Five hundred (500) blood samples were collected from three district hospitals in the FCT and tested at Wuse General Hospital, Abuja for the presence of antibodies to HIV and Hepatitis C virus, and HBsAg by ELISA technique in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. HIV seropositive sera were confirmed by Western blot. Result: Of the 500 pregnant women, those detected with HIV antibodies, HBsAg and anti-HCV antibodies were 42 (8.4%), 19 (3.8%) and 8 (1.6%) respectively. The overall seroprevalence of HIV and HBV or HCV co-infection was 9.5% while 7.1% and 2.4% HIV positive pregnant women were specifically co-infected with HBV and HCV respectively. Those within the age bracket of 15-20 years had the highest prevalence of HIV (13.4%), HBV (5.1%) and HCV (1.9%) infections. Among the occupation characteristics of the women, those of them involved in trading recorded the highest prevalence of HIV (60.6%), HBV (30.3) and HCV (6.1%). HIV was higher among the married women than the singles ((8.6% vs 6.5%); with HBV infection the reverse was the case (3.0% vs 9.8%) while HCV was same for both groups. History of blood transfusion did not reflect a higher rate of HIV and HBV (1.4% vs 9.6%; 2.8% vs 4.0% respectively) unlike HCV infection with 0.5% recorded only among those that had transfusion experience. Conclusion: When monitoring the risk of hepatotoxicity to antiretroviral drugs among these group of patients caution should be maintained. Moreover, evidence of parallel and overlapping HIV, HBsAg and HCV infections among this cohort should motivate inclusion of HBV and HCV among the diseases of surveillance in the national sentinel survey in order to ascertain the bigger picture of these infections in Nigeria

The Impact of Immunization Control Activities on Measles Outbreaks in Akwa Ibom State, South-South, Nigeria

Background: The increase of vaccination rates means that fewer children will be vulnerable to vaccine preventable diseases such as measles, which will invariably result in a drop in the infant mortality and morbidity rates. Objective: To assess the impact of the implementation of measles reduction strategies from 2006 to 2008 using the quarterly national program for immunization (NPI) in Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria. Method: Following informed consent, individuals presenting with febrile rash illnesses were routinely bled and tested for measles specific IgM using commercially available ELISA kit-MV-ELISA (Enzygnost; Behring Diagnostics, Marburg, Germany) in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Results: A total of four hundred and four individuals comprising of 216 vaccinated and 188 unvaccinated, presenting with febrile rash illness were screened for measles specific IgM antibodies as indication of active infection between January 2006 and December 2008 out of which 122 (30.2%) had detectable levels of measles antibodies. Among the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups, 32 (14.8%) and 90 (47.9%) respectively were detected with measles IgM antibodies. The highest and lowest antibody levels were detected in 2006 (vaccinated: 54.7%; unvaccinated: 78.4%) and 2008 (vaccinated: 1.2%; unvaccinated: 12%) respectively. The distribution of measles burden by year show an overall decline in prevalence from 70% in 2006, 8.9% in 2007 to 3.7% in 2008. While, children under the age of 5 similarly had a decline in measles incidence of 73.3%, 10.7% and 3.3% respectively. Sex distribution of infection within the 3-year period shows that more females (37.4%) than males (21.2%) expressed measles IgM antibodies, and active infection was detected more in the rural (31.4%) than urban area (27.7%). However, findings indicate a tremendous decline in active infection in the rural areas from 67% in 2006 to 0% in 2008, and in the urban areas from 78% in 2006 to 9.3% in 2008 among both vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. A highly significant reduction in measles infection was observed more among males than females (P=0.009). Infection distribution by location did not show any significant difference (P=0.65) even though more individuals in the rural areas were noted with active infection. Conclusion: The study shows a highly significant reduction in measles burden among vaccinated individuals (P=0.0001) and invariably increases protective coverage of measles vaccination most especially among children under 5 years of age (P=0.0066) in the state. Findings justify effort by government and WHO in carrying immunization campaigns in children, 5-years and below irrespective of vaccination status and experience

What we can learn from magnetic Compton scattering : application to the determination of spin polarization

Studies of spin-resolved electron momentum densities involve the measurement of the so-called magnetic Compton profile. This is a one-dimensional projection of the electron momentum distribution of only those electrons that contribute to the spin moment of a sample. The technique is applicable to ferri- and ferromagnetic materials. The profile is obtained via the inelastic 'Compton' scattering of high energy X-rays. Since electrons originating from different atomic orbitals have specific momentum densities, it is often possible to determine the origin of the magnetism present. Typically, interpretation requires the use of electronic structure calculations using molecular orbital and band structure approaches. Here, we highlight the application of the technique to the determination of the Fermi level spin polarization, the knowledge of which is important to the development of novel spintronic materials

Factors Influencing Adherence to ARVs among Patients Attending Comprehensive Care Clinic within Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kiambu County, Kenya

Background: The efficacy of anti-retroviral Therapy (ART) depends on adherence to the prescribed regimen. However, lack of adherence leads to treatment failure and drug resistance among other negative outcomes.Objective: To determine factors influencing adherence to ARVS among patients attending the Comprehensive Care Clinic (CCC) within Jomo  Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).Design: A descriptive cross sectional study.Setting: Comprehensive Care Clinic within JKUAT.Subjects: Three hundred HIV positive patients, undergoing ART treatment and follow up at the JKUAT clinic for a minimum duration of one month before the study, were recruited.Results: Of the 300 patients enrolled for the study (70% females and 30% males), 81%were adhering to ARV treatment. The factors that were significantly associated with adherence included; Support (encouragement and reminder to take drugs) (P=0.025); the number of meals respondents took in a day (P = 0.001); pill burden (P = 0.002) and forgetfulness (P = 0.001). However, there was no significant relationship between adherence and age, marital status, education, employment status or time taken to travel to the clinic.Conclusion: This study concluded that, the observed level of sub-optimal adherence to ART (19%) is of public health concern. These patients are vulnerable to treatment failure and development of resistant viral strains. Consequently the modifiable factors (Support, Number of meals taken, pill burden, and forgetfulness, should be addressed to change the current trea

Differing HLA types influence inhibitory receptor signalling in CMV-specific CD8+ T cells.

The dysregulated immune response to CMV constitutes a major force driving T cell immunosenescence and growing evidence suggests that it is not a benign virus in old age. We show here that the PD-1/L pathway defines a reversible defect in CMV specific CD8(+) T cell proliferative responses in both young and old individuals. More specifically, highly differentiated CD45RA(+)CD27(-) CMV-specific CD8(+) T cells exhibit a proliferative deficit compared their central and effector memory counterparts, which is reversed following PD-L blockade. However, we also report that HLA-B(∗)07/TPR specific CD8(+) T cells express higher levels of PD-1 than HLA-A(∗)02/NLV specific cells and HLA-A(∗)02 individuals show a higher proliferative response to PD-L blockade, than HLA-B(∗)07 individuals, which we postulate may be due to the differing functional avidities for these two CMV-specific CD8(+) T cells populations. Nevertheless data presented here demonstrate that CMV-specific CD8(+) T cells can be functionally enhanced by perturbation of the PD-1/L signalling pathway, whose manipulation may provide a therapeutic modality to combat age-associated immune decline

Feature extraction for the analysis of colon status from the endoscopic images

BACKGROUND: Extracting features from the colonoscopic images is essential for getting the features, which characterizes the properties of the colon. The features are employed in the computer-assisted diagnosis of colonoscopic images to assist the physician in detecting the colon status. METHODS: Endoscopic images contain rich texture and color information. Novel schemes are developed to extract new texture features from the texture spectra in the chromatic and achromatic domains, and color features for a selected region of interest from each color component histogram of the colonoscopic images. These features are reduced in size using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and are evaluated using Backpropagation Neural Network (BPNN). RESULTS: Features extracted from endoscopic images were tested to classify the colon status as either normal or abnormal. The classification results obtained show the features' capability for classifying the colon's status. The average classification accuracy, which is using hybrid of the texture and color features with PCA (τ = 1%), is 97.72%. It is higher than the average classification accuracy using only texture (96.96%, τ = 1%) or color (90.52%, τ = 1%) features. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, novel methods for extracting new texture- and color-based features from the colonoscopic images to classify the colon status have been proposed. A new approach using PCA in conjunction with BPNN for evaluating the features has also been proposed. The preliminary test results support the feasibility of the proposed method

Environmental bacteriophages active on biofilms and planktonic forms of toxigenic Vibrio cholerae: Potential relevance in cholera epidemiology.

METHODS: Phages isolated from environmental waters in Bangladesh were tested for their host specificity towards V. cholerae O1 and O139, and the ability to disperse V. cholerae biofilms formed in the laboratory. Representative phages were further characterized by electron microscopy and whole genome sequencing. Selected phages were then introduced in various combinations to biofilms of toxigenic V. cholerae added to samples of river water, and the dispersion of biofilms as well as the growth kinetics of V. cholerae and the phages were monitored. RESULTS: A phage cocktail composed of three different phages isolated from surface waters in Bangladesh and designated as JSF7, JSF4, and JSF3 could significantly influence the distribution and concentration of the active planktonic form and biofilm associated form of toxigenic V. cholerae in water. While JSF7 showed a biofilm degrading activity and dispersed cells from both V. cholerae O1 and O139 derived biofilms thus increasing the concentration of planktonic V. cholerae in water, JSF4 and JSF3 showed strong bactericidal activity against V. cholerae O1 and O139 respectively. A mixture of all three phages could effectively reduce both biofilm-associated and planktonic V. cholerae in river water microcosms. SIGNIFICANCE: Besides potential applicability in phage-mediated control of cholera, our results have relevance in appreciating possible intricate role of diverse environmental phages in the epidemiology of the disease, since both biofilms and phages influence the prevalence and infectivity of V. cholerae in a variety of ways

"Limb-body-Wall complex" et exposition anténatale à l’ alcool - à propos de deux cas

Le "Limb-Body-Wall complex" est une association malformative rare décrite pour la première fois en 1987 par Van Allen. Sa cause n'est pas encore connue à ce jour. L'hypothèse de l'existence de facteurs génétiques et environnementaux (alcool) associés à ces phénotypes a été évoquée dans la littérature. Nous décrivons deux phénotypes de cette association malformative complexe, diagnostiquée chez des nouveau-nés à terme. Les mères des deux propositus ont reconnu avoir consommé de l'alcool régulièrement durant leur grossesse. Il s'agit des premiers cas Congolais rapportés dans la littérature.Key words: Limb-body-Wall complexe, placento-crânienne, placento-abdominale, alcoo

A new case of t(4;12)(q12;p13) in a secondary acute myeloid leukemia with review of literature

Case report of a translocation : A new case of t(4;12)(q12;p13) in a secondary acute myeloid leukemia with review of literature

Senescence of T Lymphocytes: Implications for Enhancing Human Immunity

As humans live longer, a central concern is to find ways to maintain their health as they age. Immunity declines during ageing, as shown by the increased susceptibility to infection by both previously encountered and new pathogens and by the decreased efficacy of vaccination. It is therefore crucial to understand the mechanisms responsible for this decrease in immunity and to develop new strategies to enhance immune function in older humans. We discuss here how the induction of senescence alters leukocyte, and specifically T cell, function. An emerging concept is that senescence and nutrient sensing-signalling pathways within T cells converge to regulate functional responses, and the manipulation of these pathways may offer new ways to enhance immunity during ageing