Transmission of Urinary Schistosomiasis among School Aged Children in Owena, Kajola and Baiken Communities Bordering Owena Reservoir/Dam, Ondo East Local Area, Ondo State, Southwest, Nigeria

Three different rivers in Ogun and Ondo states were investigated for both micro and macro-biota of the water bodies. Several physical and chemical properties of these rivers were determined. The pH value of the studied water bodies was essentially neutral with salinity values between 0.02 - 4.0‰. Microalgae communities were represented by three divisions: Cyanophyta, Bacillariophyta and Chlorophyta at Oluwa and Ifara Rivers (Ondo state), while at Ibefun River (Ogun state), five divisions: Cyanophyta, Bacillariophyta, Chlorophyta, Euglenophyta and Pyrrhophyta were identified. Diatoms dominated these water bodies, with Navicula radiosa Kutz. at Ifara River, Fragilaria sp. in Oluwa River, while out of 90 algal taxa identified in Ibefun river, 64 were diatoms species belonging to 26 genera, with Melosira sp. and Synedra sp. recording the highest numbers of cell count. Dinoflagellates recorded only Peridinium sp. while Phacus orbicularis Hubner and Trachelomonas sp. dominated the euglenoids. For the zooplankton composition at Ibefun, rotifers (75.95%) were represented by Brachionus sp., which recorded 62.03%, and Gastropus sp. with 13.92% of the total zooplankton, thus dominated the spectrum, while the copepod recorded 22.78% of the total organisms, with Copilia sp. and Euchirella sp. having 8.86% each. The macrobenthic invertebrates were represented by 3 taxa, belonging to 3 groups, with the dominant group Insecta accounted for 57% of the total individuals (7 individuals/m2), while Oligochaeta and Hirudinea accounted for 29% and 14% respectively of the total individuals at Oluwa and Ifara Rivers. At Ibefun River, the macrobenthic invertebrates were represented by 5 taxa, belonging to 3 groups, Bivalves, Oligochaeta and Insecta, with bivalves being the dominant group (51.7% of the total individuals, as 64 individuals/m2), while Oligochaeta and Insecta accounted for 26.6% and 21.9% respectively of the total individuals. The dominant taxon, Macoma cumana, accounted for 42.2%. A total of seventeen (17) finfish and shellfish species comprised of thirteen (13) finfish and four (4) shellfish species were recorded, being representative of freshwater and brackish water species; Clarias anguillaris (Clariidae), Tilapia zilli (Cichlidae), Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (Bagridae), Alestes spp. and Macrobrachium vollenhovenii (Palaemonidae) were the most common species observed.

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Overweight and Obesity Among School-aged Children and Maternal Preventive Practices against Childhood Obesity in Select Local Government Areas of Lagos, Southwest, Nigeria

International Journal of MCH and AIDS (IJMA) ◽

10.21106/ijma.273 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 70-83

Author(s):

Oluwafunmilayo Funke Adeniyi ◽

Gabriel T. Fagbenro ◽

Foluke A. Olatona

Keyword(s):

Childhood Obesity ◽

Local Government ◽

Overweight And Obesity ◽

The Body ◽

World Health ◽

School Age Children ◽

Categorical Variables ◽

School Aged Children ◽

Preventive Practices ◽

Southwest Nigeria

Background: Childhood obesity is an emerging epidemic in the developing countries, particularly in the urban settings. This study examines the prevalence of overweight and obesity among school-aged children and the maternal preventive practices against childhood obesity. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of school-aged children aged 6-13 years and mothers from two Local Government Areas of Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select study areas and participants, while data were collected using an interviewer administered questionnaire. The Body Mass Index (BMI) of children were determined using the World Health Organisation (WHO) 2007 reference charts. Chi-square test was used to analyze categorical variables and logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the factors associated with the nutritional status and maternal childhood obesity preventive practices. All analyses were conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 21. Results: In all, 440 children comprising of 232 boys (52.7%) and 208 girls (42.3%) were studied. Of these, 29 of the participants (6.6%) were overweight, while 39 of them (8.9%) were obese. Most of the children (71.2%) consumed root/tubers and processed cereals while 9 (0.02%) and (17) 0.04% consumed fruits and vegetables. BMI was only significantly related to child age and sex. In all, 243 mothers (55.2%) had good practices against childhood obesity. Levels of maternal preventive practices were not significantly associated with child BMI. Conclusions and Global Health Implications: Overweight/obesity among school-aged children in Lagos is high. Only half of the mothers were involved in preventive practices against childhood obesity. There is need for continuous education and advocacy concerning healthy diet and other preventive strategies against childhood obesity in Lagos, and potentially other parts of the developing world. Key words: • Overweight • Obesity • School-age children • Childhood Maternal preventive practices • Lagos • Nigeria Copyright © 2019 Adeniyi et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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RUMOURS, RIOTS AND THE REJECTION OF MASS DRUG ADMINISTRATION FOR THE TREATMENT OF SCHISTOSOMIASIS IN MOROGORO, TANZANIA

Journal of Biosocial Science ◽

10.1017/s0021932016000018 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 48 (S1) ◽

pp. S16-S39 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Julie Hastings

Keyword(s):

Drug Administration ◽

Mass Drug Administration ◽

Neglected Tropical Diseases ◽

Tropical Diseases ◽

Urinary Schistosomiasis ◽

School Aged Children ◽

Biomedical Intervention ◽

Resource Poor ◽

The Village ◽

Programme Staff

SummaryIn 2008 in Morogoro region, Tanzania, mass drug administration (MDA) to school-aged children to treat two neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) – urinary schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths – was suspended by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare after riots broke out in schools where drugs were being administered. This article discusses why this biomedical intervention was so vehemently rejected, including an eyewitness account. As the protest spread to the village where I was conducting fieldwork, villagers accused me of bringing medicine into the village with which to ‘poison’ the children and it was necessary for me to leave immediately under the protection of the Tanzanian police. The article examines the considerable differences between biomedical and local understandings of one of these diseases, urinary schistosomiasis. Such a disjuncture was fuelled further by the apparent rapidity of rolling out MDA and subsequent failures in communication between programme staff and local people. Rumours of child fatalities as well as children’s fainting episodes and illnesses following treatment brought about considerable conjecture both locally and nationally that the drugs had been either faulty, counterfeit, hitherto untested on humans or part of a covert sterilization campaign. The compelling arguments by advocates of MDA for the treatment of NTDs rest on the assumption that people suffering from these diseases will be willing to swallow the medicine. However, as this article documents, this is not always the case. For treatment of NTDs to be successful it is not enough for programmes to focus on economic and biomedical aspects of treatment, rolling out ‘one size fits all’ programmes in resource-poor settings. It is imperative to develop a biosocial approach: to consider the local social, biological, historical, economic and political contexts in which these programmes are taking place and in which the intended recipients of treatment live their lives. If this is not done, the world’s poor will continue to be neglected.

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