Asian Journal of Research in Infectious Diseases

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected Nigeria and many countries of the world in recent times. It has introduced some level of new concepts and social phenomena in many countries. The interference of myths and misconceptions in the mitigation of the epidemics in Nigeria calls for attention. Many Nigerians harbor some level of myth or misconceptions about COVID-19. Lack of confidence in the integrity of government, security agents, health officers among many other factors is the popular opinion that has contributed to the spread of misconceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic by many Nigerians. The mass media through programs, activities, campaigns, information dissemination etc, educates and detect to the society what is important. There is need for synergism between the private, public, local and international organization for the masses to receive the proper education that will debunk the harmful myths and misconceptions among many Nigerians.

The high incidence of malaria epidemic among rural households in developing countries is not in doubt. The study assessed factors influencing malaria incidence in rural Kogi State, Nigeria. This study aimed to identify farmers’ socioeconomic characteristics in relation to malaria occurrence and determinants. Structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 240 randomly selected registered farming households in the State’s Agricultural Zones B and D. Data obtained were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Result of the study revealed good knowledge on malaria prevention, causes and symptoms among the farming households. Despite their level of knowledge, malaria was prevalent and significantly influenced by closeness to bush and dumps, closeness to stagnant water, and distance to health centres with the coefficient of 1.341, 1.520 and 1.741 at 5%, 5% and 1% level of significance respectively. Household with access to health campaign and subsequent use of insecticide treated mosquito nets had low probability of malaria infection. These predictors, however, need further work to validate reliability.

Background: Chlamydia trachomatis infection is an established cause of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), ectopic pregnancy, chronic pelvic pain and infertility among women. It is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted disease in the world. The infection is largely asymptomatic.

Aim: The study was carried out to determine the Clinical background as well as detect the Chlamydia trachomatis antigen among infertile women attending University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH).

Methods: A survey on the Clinical background and antigens to Chlamydia trachomatis was carried out among infertile and post natal women attending fertility Clinic UMTH. A total of 65 endocervical swab samples were collected from the aforementioned group of subjects within the age of 18-47 years, out of which 45 were collected from infertile women while the remaining 20 were obtained from post-natal women to serve as control subjects. The samples were analysed by using Chlamydia Rapid Test device swab/urine (Abon Biopharm(Hangzhou), Co., Ltd) that work on the principle of immunochromatographic technique.

Results: Highest number of infertility was observed on women within the age of 30-35 years (33.3%). The result shows that those that attained tertiary educational level have the highest number of infertility (60%). The study demonstrated highest number of infertility among female civil servants (53.3%) followed by full-time house wife (33.3%). More infertility was observed among women who are not engaged in the use of contraceptive measures (95.6%). The overall result from this study shows no prevalence (0.0%) of C. trachomatis genital infection among infertile women in UMTH.

Conclusion: Further research using more sensitive and specific procedures for the detection of C. trachomatis from clinical specimens such as nucleic acid amplification tests and cell culture are recommended among infertile women in Borno State, Nigeria.

Adolescents and youths are at high risk due to knowledge gap and behavior risks related to HIV.

Despite the well-known need for protection from HIV infections and other reproductive health risks, being an adolescent coupled with social and economic status could limit access to information and services. This is a study to ascertain the HIV/AIDS Knowledge and behaviour-risk among in-school adolescents and youths in Ebonyi State, Nigeria.

It is a descriptive cross-sectional study involving1831 in-school adolescents selected by multi-stage sampling technique.

Females showed higher knowledge at 52.2±20.1 than males at 47.5±20.3 (p<0.001). Also the urban youths had higher knowledge (47.1±20.8) than rural schools (41.3±20.3). Conversely, males displayed higher behaviour risk at 44.8±24.5 than the female at 39.9±24.6 (p<0.001). Highest behaviour risk was observed in age group 16-20 years (51.2±25.8). Schools in urban setting had higher behaviour risk (56.1±25.5) than rural schools (41.3±23.7), while knowledge of HIV transmission was highest as 63.8% of the respondent scored ≥50 in 5 HIV questions on knowledge of transmission. Also 48% (370) of the 778 participants who ever had sex had used condom while 50% (915/1831) of the study population were willing to abstain from sex till marriage.

There is a strong need for appropriate regular and intensified HIV/AIDS risk reduction interventions to capture the attention of youths especially males, and to ensure sustainable and effective outcomes in secondary schools of Ebonyi state Nigeria.

Introduction: From 27 April to 3 August 2017, 453,175 suspected cholera cases and 1,930 deaths (CFR: 0.4%) have been reported in 95.6% (22/23) of Yemen governorates, and 89.2% (297/333) of the districts.

The five most affected governorates were Amanat Al-Asima, Al Hudaydah, Hajjah, Amran and Dhamar with 53% (239,877/453,175) of the cases reported since 27 April 2017. In amanat al Asimah (Sana'a city) 55563 cases 61 deaths are registered in that period with case fatality rate 0.1% and attack rate 1.68%

Objectives: To study Profile of suspected cholera patients in Sanaa city.

Materials and Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was carried out by using secondary analysis of available data collected from (DTCs), (ORCs) and other health facilities by department of epidemiological surveillance – Sanaa city health office.

Results: A total of 92995 suspected cholera patients were included in the study whereas the average age of study subjects was 22.7 years where standard deviation (SD) 18.8 most affected age groups were (15-29),(5-14),(<5) the predominant of the study subjects from Sanaa city (96%) from Ma'ain, Bani-Alhareth, AND Al-Sabain districts Most cases are reported from DTCs (59300), ORCs (29547) Cases starts to appear in week 17 reaches a peak in weeks 24,25  and then slowly decreases. 155 suspected cholera cases were culture positives

Conclusion: 1. Cholera is one of the urgent health problems in Sana’a city

1. Cholera distribution is not gender sensitive, the most affected age group is (15-29) years, followed by (5-14) then under five
2. Cases are mainly distributed in Ma'ain, Bani-Alhareth, & Al-Sabain within Sana’a city (50% of the total cases).
3. The main cholera health care facilities are mainly DTCs and ORCs supported by WHO & UNICEF
4. Most of the subjects seek medical care within the first 2 days after onset of symptoms
5. The peak of cholera suspected cases is registered in weeks 24 & 24.
6. Confirmed cholera cases by culture are 155 from 655 specimen tested whereas 1984 are positive by cholera RDT

Recommendations:1. More cholera control interventions are necessary and urgent to eradicate it.

1. More field related research must be carried out to guide control and management interventions.
2. Some interventions must be concentrated on the age groups 5-14 & under five and at the most affected areas.

Aims: Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). While the gold standard for diagnosis is still reverse transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), it is not readily available. Serologic testing is considered to be a faster method of identifying individuals who may have been exposed and developed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.

Methodology: This was an ambirectional observational study aimed to determine the prevalence of exposure to COVID-19 infection among asymptomatic healthcare workers in Makati Medical Center, a tertiary hospital in the Philippines, using rapid antibody testing (lateral flow immunoassay) in May 2020.

Results: A total of 1557 asymptomatic healthcare workers were included in the study. Majority belonged to the paramedical group (52%). Twenty (1.3%) healthcare workers were IgM positive while 17 (1.1%) tested positive for IgG. Three healthcare workers (0.2%) tested positive for both antibodies. Participants with history of being quarantined who tested positive for either IgM or IgG were significantly higher compared to those who tested negative for both antibodies (55%, 33.3%, 41.2% vs 28.5%, p = 0.036). Those with diabetes had 6.8 times higher risk of being IgM positive and IgG negative (p=0.001). In addition, those with diabetes were more likely (13.6 times) to be positive in both tests (p=0.034).

Conclusion: There was a low prevalence (2.6%) of COVID-19 infection among healthcare workers of Makati Medical Center. Among those with positive serologic test, diabetes mellitus, history of exposure and history of quarantine were risk factors associated with COVID-19 infection.

Objective: This paper examines and upgrades a two-parameter double exponential distribution to a four-parameter beta double exponential model by compounding the baseline distribution and beta link function to fits and analyse deaths-cases data set of the recent outbreak of the global pandemic coronavirus disease (COVID-19) for both Africa and Non-Africa countries. The new proposed model, although complex in its mathematical structure, yet flexible to implement and its robustness to accommodate non-normal data is an extra advantage to statistical theory and other fields.

Methodology: The statistical properties: the density function, cumulative distribution function, survival function, hazard function, moments, moments generating function, skewness and kurtosis of the developed model were presented. Maximum likelihood method is used for parameters estimation procedure. The new model is validated and compared with some frontier similar extant parametric family of beta distributions using graphs, Kolmogorov Smirnov (KS) Statistic, Log-likelihood and model criteria statistics like Akaike Information Criteria (AIC), Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC) and Consistent Akaike Information Criteria (CAIC) as tools for comparison.

Results: The graphs, KS, LogL and model criteria statistics values showed that the proposed model fits the COVID-19 pandemic data better than other competing models since the model has lower values as stated: The values from non-African countries KS = 0.1208, LogL = 278.4168, AIC = 560.8336, BIC = 576.1147 and CAIC = 577.1147. Also, from African countries are: KS = 0.0759, LogL = 144.0245, AIC = 292.0490, BIC = 303.9302 and CAIC = 304.9302.

Conclusion: The proposed model showed its applicability and flexibility over other models considered in this work. Therefore, this implies that the new model can be used for modeling other infectious disease data and real data in many fields.

Malaria, a mosquito-borne, protozoan disease is caused by a protozoan parasite of genus Plasmodium (Phylum: Apicomplexan). Four species of malaria parasites are recognized to infect humans. However, a fifth species, Plasmodium knowlesi, has been reported to show potential zoonotic infection in humans as several cases have been testified throughout South East Asia and on the Nicobar and Andaman Islands of India. The most widespread species of macaque in Southeast Asia i.e. long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis) is the natural host for this zoonotic malaria species. Recent case reports have suggested knowlesi malaria are associated with comorbidities which leads to poor treatment outcome. In this review, we have searched the literature from PubMed and Google Scholar and tried to highlight the epidemiology, parasite biology and future challenges regarding this emerging zoonotic infection.

Clofazimine is a riminophenazine dye originally used as an antitubercular agent after its first synthesis in 1954, just few years after it was administered as a treatment for leprosy by YT Chang. In the following years, also an anti-inflammatory effectiveness on erythema nodosum leprosum was recognized [1]. In the ‘70s, its therapeutic activity on discoid lupus erythematosus and pyoderma gangrenosum was documented [2]. The safety of Clofazimine is good with a median frequency of the most reported adverse event (skin discoloration and gastrointestinal events) of 5.1% and a requiring discontinuation of the treatment in 0.1% of cases [3].