Adejoke Adijat Joseph

Midlife crisis occurs when people begin to lose confidence and have feelings of anxiety or disappointment about life in middle age. It is a transition that takes place as people grow older while struggling with the passing of their youth. This study examines the psychological and emotional impacts of midlife crises and the coping strategies employed by participants. The study was conducted among 348 participants from a city in southwestern Nigeria. Primary data was retrieved through questionnaire administration, while the study was explained using the retrospective denial theory. Stress topped the psychological and emotional impacts of midlife crisis among the participants (61.2%), followed by anxiety (59.9%), and low self-esteem was the least (3.4%). In order to cope with a midlife crisis, the majority of study participants (86.1%) used prayer as the most effective coping strategy, followed by forgetting the past and moving on (79.2%), and accepting their fate (47.5%) as the least effective. The study concludes that almost all the participants in the study have experienced midlife crisis. The feeling that life has not turned out to be topped as the cause of midlife crisis, with excessive thoughts about childhood being the least. With regards to the psychological and emotional impacts of midlife crisis on participants, stress was the highest, followed by anxiety, and low self-esteem was the least, while prayer topped the list of coping strategies employed by participants in the study. We recommend that people who experience midlife crises seek the help of therapists who can help them sort out feelings about past events, manage current stress, and plan their future.

This review was designed to discuss the emerging and current pharmacotherapeutic agents for the treatment of Lassa viral haemorrhagic fever disease (LVHFD), also known as Lassa fever (LF). Original peer-reviewed articles that investigated LF were identified using the Medline Entrez-PubMed search. Information was also sourced from printed textbooks and reports by recognized health professional bodies such as the WHO, CDC, the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). A total of 103 articles were reviewed and 78 were found to contain information relevant to the study. LF remains an endemic disease of public health concern in the West Africa region, and in the rest of the world as cases have been imported into non-endemic regions as well. Currently, there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics for the treatment of Lassa mammarenavirus (LASV) infection. There are, however, off-label therapeutics being used (ribavirin and convalescent plasma) whose efficacy is suboptimal. Research is still ongoing on possible therapeutic options and drug repurposing of therapeutic agents currently in use for other clinical conditions. Considered therapeutic options include favipiravir, taribavirin, Arevirumab-3 and experimental drugs such as losmapimod, adamantyl diphenyl piperazine 3.3, Arbidol (umifenovir) and decanoyl-RRLL-chloromethyl ketone (dec-RRLL-CMK). Current treatments for LF are limited, hence the institution of mitigating measures to prevent infection is of utmost importance and should be prioritized, especially in endemic regions. Heightened searches for other therapeutic options with greater efficacy and lower toxicity are still ongoing, as well as for vaccines as the absence of these classifies the disease as a priority disease of high public health impact.

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global health problem, representing a major cause of morbidity and mortality in all age group and sex. Chronic infection with the virus can result in complications such as liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The HBV can be sexually transmitted. Due to their age and adventurous sexual behaviour, young adults are susceptible hence preventing it among this category of people through health education and health promotion is imperative. This study therefore examines the knowledge and sources of information of Hepatitis B among students of a public university in South West Nigeria. Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional survey was carried out between August and December 2019 and involving 228 participants across various academic departments selected through a two-staged sampling method. Information was retrieved through administration of structured questionnaire while data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 as statistical tool. Results: Findings revealed that participants in the study have Fair level of knowledge despite High Awareness about Hepatitis B. The highest source of information about HBV was the internet which was followed closely by School. A statistical significant association was found to exist between knowledge of HBV and age of participants (p Value=0.028), as well as the source of information such as internet (p Value=0.010), school (p Value=0.038) and health talk (p Value=0.010). Conclusion: The fair level of knowledge displayed among these young adults could adversely affect the effectiveness of a HBV prevention and control programme in the country. Adequate health education on the subject of HBV transmission and the knowledge that it is preventable need to be reiterated in health promotion activities particularly targeted at young adults.

Diarrhoea disease is the second leading cause of death amongst Nigerian children (after malaria) with a prevalence rate in Nigeria of 18.8% which is one of the worst in sub-Sahara Africa. A major contributor to childhood morbidity and mortality, causes 4 million deaths each year in under-fives with each child experiencing about 5 episodes of diarrhoea yearly. We review diarrhoea diseases in children with focus on infectious diarrhoea with the aim of looking at the progress made so far in its management and control. Diarrhoea can be classified into acute and chronic; secretory, osmotic, inflammatory or due to impaired motility; infectious and non-infectious. In developing countries, infections are the most common causes of acute watery diarrhoea in children, whereas chronic diarrhoea results from non-infectious causes like inherited metabolic disorders, sensitivity to gluten orneoplasm. Diagnosis includes a careful history from the patient, examination of stool sample and examination of faecal swab samples where stool is not available. Diarrhoea in this age group is mostly of infectious origin and can be viral, bacterial, parasitic or fungi. Treatment in this environment is primarily supportive with oral or intravenous fluid and preventive measures include domestic hygiene promotion, breast-feeding promotion, improved weaning practices, probiotic use, oral rehydration therapy with additional L-glutamine, zinc supplementation and vaccination against childhood infectious diseases like rotavirus, measles and cholera. An aluminmagnesium silicate, Smectite® has been found to be of potential benefit in the management of diarrhoea. Use of Rotavirus vaccines, probiotics and Smectite® is being advocated.

Background: Diarrhoea due to opportunistic coccidian parasites is a common clinical presentation in HIV infection. Its management differs from that of diarrhoea due to other protozoa, improvement of immune status being the mainstay while specific drug treatment is available for other aetiologies, hence, the need for its accurate identification when present. This can be achieved via various diagnostic techniques, commonly microscopy in this environment, hence the need to compare the efficacy of the commonly used stains in our locality. Objective: To identify the most effective of the commonly used stains in identifying these parasites. Methods: Diarrhoea stool samples from 250 adult HIV positives and an equal number of age and sex matched HIV negative controls were screened, staining with trichrome, auramine and modified Ziehl–Neelsen stain. Results: A positivity rate of 55% was reported. modified Ziehl–Neelsen , when compared with trichrome staining had 81% sensitivity, 77.3% specificity, positive predictive value of 70.4%, negative predictive value of 85.9% and when compared to auramine staining, had 80% sensitivity, 76.7% specificity, positive predictive value of 69.9%, negative predictive value of 85.2% in test subjects. There was a significant moderate level of agreement between the staining methods though Trichrome showed a stronger agreement than Auramine when compared with Modified ZN in test (ê value 0.569 and 0.553 respectively), and a significant, fair level of agreement between the methods with Auramine showing a stronger agreement than Trichrome when both were compared with Modified ZN (ê value 0.399 and 0.332 respectively) in controls. Conclusion: Auramine and trichrome techniques are preferred for screening and diagnosis based on findings. Of these two techniques, auramine is preferred.