International Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology

Abstract: Distinguishing bacterial from viral meningitis helps prevent unnecessary use of antibiotics and decreases the length of stay. The distinction may often be blurred by the typical textbook description of viral meningitis which states that mononuclear cells predominate in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The aim of the work is to accurately describe the CSF response in a group of children with enteroviral meningitis proven by the gold standard, polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A cross sectional study was performed at Sh…

Abstract: Ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) is a rare autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cerebellar ataxia, telangiectasies, immune defects, and a predisposition to malignancy. Patients present in early childhood with progressive cerebellar ataxia and later develop conjunctival telangiectases, other progressive neurologic degeneration, sinopulmonary infection and malignancies. Under-diagnosis or diagnostic delay of AT and its pulmonary complications contribute to morbidity and early mortality. We report…

Abstract: Norovirus (NoV) has captured increasing attention as an agent of childhood diarrhea, but its incidence in developing countries such as Nigeria has been underreported. This study was conducted to investigate the role of NoVs in sporadic cases of acute diarrhea among hospitalized children. One hundred and eighty-eight (188) specimens comprising 161 diarrheic and 27 non-diarrheic stools were randomly selected from 668 stools previously screened for rotaviruses. These specimens were collected from children under 5 year…

Abstract: Staphylococcus epidermidis is a frequent cause of nosocomial infections. The major virulence factor is thought to be biofilm formation by the organism mediated by gene products of the icaADBC operon. In this research, biofilm phenotype and icaADBC gene carriage were studied in 50 S. epidermidis isolates from symptomatic patients (group A) and 50 skin isolates from healthy individuals (group B). Biofilm phenotype was shown by colony morphology on Congo red agar and the microtiter plate method was used for quantitati…

Abstract: The fatty acid composition of the wedge clam Donax cuneatus collected from the sandy beach of Cuddalore (southeast coast of India) was determined. In the analysis, the fatty acid profile by gas chromatography revealed the presence of higher amount of saturated fatty acids (35.28%) than mono (12.71%) and polyunsaturated (11.72%) fatty acids. Among the saturated fatty acids, the stearic acid contributed the maximum amount of 15.68%. Whereas the monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) were accounted for 26.57% with mostly…