Psychospiritual impact of COVID-19: Africentric Perspectives

This study sought to find out the psychospiritual impact of COVID-D as a result of the imposition of preventive measures. The study was carried out in the Mezam Division of the North West Region of Cameroon. A mixed research approach was used for the study with the aid of a questionnaire and an interview guide. A convenient sampling technique was chosen for the study based on the availability of the 50 respondents chosen for the study, using the snowball technique. The results of the study reveal that the most acceptable preventive measures that people complied to were personal hygiene (100%), taking of African traditional concoction treatments (100%) and prayers to God (100%). Psychologically, 60% of the respondents expressed symptoms of anxiety, while 30% expressed symptoms for stress and 20% expressed symptoms of depression. Spiritually, all 50 respondents (100%) indicated that their spiritual activities have been disrupted by the pandemic, which poses a real problem for an African oriented society where religion and spiritual activities are common. In conclusions, it was evident that psychospiritual dissonance including mixed and faulty beliefs on those claiming to provide solutions complicated peoples’ understanding of the realities of the situations.

Genetic factors of predilection for habitual noncarrying of pregnancy at early stages

By means of the method of polimerase chain reaction the frequency of blank allele of genes GSTP1, GSTM1, and the frequency of polymorphous alleles of gene GSTP1 in 40 pairs with habitual noncarrying of pregnancy at early stages were studied. The results of the investigation testify to the high rate of gomozygotes GSTT1 0/0 in pairs with habitual noncarrying of pregnancy in comparison with indices in general population of North-West region of Russia (37,7% and 23,3% correspondingly). The genes GSTM1, GSTT1, GSTP1 code enzymes, which take part in the second phase of xenobiotic detoxication system. Taking into consideration that protein products of these genes to significant extent determine the effectiveness of 2nd phase of detoxication (neutralization of xenobiotics by glutathione binding), we are to suppose that unfavorable environmental factorsplay the important role in etiology and genesis of habitual noncarrying of pregnancy at early stages.

Prevalence of Malaria and the Use of Long-lasting Insecticide Treated Bed Nets in Households of Rural and Semi-urban Communities in Mbengwi Health District, North West Region, Cameroon

Aims: In Cameroon, on August 2011 and October 2015 the Ministry of Public Health launched the national campaign for distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets (LLINs) to all families as a means of effectively fighting malaria transmission. The study area Mbengwi Health District found in the North West Region of Cameroon benefitted from this distribution of LLINs, but the impact of this intervention has not been evaluated. This study was designed to assess the use of LLINs in selected households of rural and semi-urban communities in Mbengwi Health District. Study Design: A cross sectional study was conducted in households, between July 2017 to September 2017 in Mbengwi health district. Methodology: Two questionnaires were administered; one to the household head and the other to the occupants. Blood samples were obtained to diagnose and quantify malaria parasite and to determine hemoglobin concentrations (HB). A total of 93 households and 440 inhabitants of all sexes and age groups were surveyed. Results: Of the 440 participants, 49 were positive for malaria parasite giving an overall prevalence of 11.1%. From the questionnaires it was observed that 87 (93.5%) of the households owned LLINs, with up to 82 (94.3%) sleeping under the nets. All the owners of LLINs (87; 100%) obtained the nets from the government free of charge. There was no significant difference in bed-net ownership (p=0.978) and usage (p=0.664) between the rural and semi-urban communities. Malaria prevalence was significantly lower among users of LLINs (4.8%) than non-users (23.5%, p<0.001). Malaria parasite density negatively correlated significantly with HB (r= -0.097, p=0.041). Conclusion: Overall, there was a high degree ownership and usage of LLINs by households in both rural and semi-urban communities, which was associated with protection from malaria infection.

Verbal Extensions and Valency in Limbum

The objective of this paper is to examine the extent to which verbal extensions in Limbum affect valency. Limbum is a Grassfield Bantu language of the Northern group, spoken by the population who occupy a greater part of the Nkambe plateau in Donga-Mantung Division of the North West Region of Cameroon Binan Bikoi (ed) (2012). To attain my set objective, I carry out an analysis of those affixes (in the case of Limbum, they are suffixes), which are usually attached to verbs and the effect the addition of these suffixes has on the number of arguments in the sentence. Some of these suffixes have a valency decreasing effect, while some have a valency increasing effect on the verbs. The orientation of the discussions here centres on the description of the morpho-syntactic structure of the Limbum verb. In this regard, the analysis herein draws inspiration from the theory of Valency as proposed by Tesnière in 1959 and his followers and the Structuralist Framework as propounded by De Saussure and his disciples who hold that linguistic unit: words, phrases and sentences are perceived as a concatenation of smaller units which hold a close relationship between them. The structure of the Limbum sentence containing verbal extensions that express aspectual meanings have three consequences on the number of arguments that the verb takes: the discussions here show that, while the morphemes -ri, -Si, and -se marking the attenuative, the pluractional, and the distributive aspects respectively have no effect on the number of arguments taken by the verb to which they are suffixed, the causative morpheme -si, has a valency increasing effect on the verb to which it is affixed. In the same light, the reciprocative -ni, the separative -ti and the iterative -Nger, when suffixed to a verb, have the tendency of increasing the number of arguments that the verb takes. In a bid to clarify the structural cartography of verbal extensions in Limbum, the last part of this paper is dedicated to a presentation of some suffixes like -ri and -si, which has, with the evolution of the language, fossilized with the verb root to the extent that they have become an integral part of the verb in a way that they cannot be detached from each other. Conclusively, the paper shows that verbal extensions in Limbum are, for the most part, suffixal morphemes. While some of these suffixes have no effect on the number of arguments the verb subcategorizes for, some have a valency decreasing effect on the verb while others, on the other hand, have a valency increasing effect. Others have outrightly merged with the verb root.