Journal of Advances in Medicine and Medical Research

Schistosomiasis is a chronic parasitic disease caused by a digenetic trematode blood fluke of the genus Schistosoma. The disease remains a serious public health problem in endemic countries and affects at least 207 million people worldwide, with 85% in Africa. In Kenya, more than 3.5 million are infected. A definite diagnosis of the disease plays a key role in the control of schistosomiasis. The detection of Schistosome Circulating antigens is an effective approach to discriminate previous exposure and current infection. Simple, non-invasive tools for detection of S. mansoni would be highly valuable with the view of post-intervention assessment in programmes but also for treatment/re-treatment of the individual patient. The study was conducted in Makueni, a low infection area (6 to 90 years old). The prevalence was 56.4% after three consecutive Kato-Katz stools. A population sample of n= 521 individuals was selected from an initial study cohort in an epidemiological follow-up of Schistosome infections in this foci. All the subjects in the sub-sample had been treated with praziquantel 40 mg/kg. The study was to determine the prevalence of S. mansoni using Kato technique and CCA (Circulating Cathodic Antigen) urine Elisa strips at baseline and 24 hours then also at 2 years later. The cohort study population at baseline had a prevalence of 62% of the schistosomiasis infection. The detection of schistosomiasis CCA at baseline using the CCA Elisa strip on urine samples gave a prevalence of 71.9%. The CCA was determined 24 hours after treatment with PZQ and the prevalence was 44.1%. In conclusion, Kitengei village is low endemic for schistosomiasis. Finally, circulating cathodic antigen can be used as a diagnostic tool, for the follow-up of chemotherapy and re-infection and as a field test and/or screening tool in control programmes.

The study investigated the efficacy of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Logotherapy in reducing risky sexual behaviours among in-school adolescents in Benin Metropolis, Edo State. Four research questions were raised and formulated to hypotheses to guide the study. A Quasi-experimental design, using pre-test-post-test, and non-equivalent control group was adopted. The population of the study consisted of twenty thousand, four hundred and twenty SS 2 students. The sample consisted of one hundred and thirty five participants, which was selected through multi-stage sampling technique. Three schools were randomly selected from thirty one mixed public Senior Secondary Schools. One school was selected from each Local Government Area that made up the Metropolis. School A served as the experimental group for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, comprising fifty five participants. School B served as the experimental group for Logotherapy, comprising thirty six participants. School C served as the control group, comprising forty four participants. The Adolescent Sexual Behaviour Inventory was used for both the pre-test and post-test.  The reliability coefficient of 0.926 was obtained on the instruments. The data collected were analysed, using t-test, ANOVA and did a post-hoc analysis, using the Least Significant Difference. The findings showed that Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Logotherapy were both slightly efficacious in reducing risky sexual behaviours among in-school adolescents in Benin Metropolis. The study recommended that counselling psychologists and school counsellors should be well trained in the use of CBT and LT in addressing risky behaviours, especially among adolescents.

Background: Hypertension is a major modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and research studies done in Nigeria observed prevalence rate of hypertension to range from 26.4% to 36.9%.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the sociodemographic, clinical, behavioral and cardiovascular risk factors associated with hypertension in Awka, South East, Nigeria.

Methods: Cross-sectional study was used.391 participants aged from 18 years above were recruited for this study. Structured questionnaires were constructed in line with World Health Organization Step approach was utilized for data collection. Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mmHg and Diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg. Chi-square and independent sample T test were used to test comparison between two groups.

Results: The mean age of the subjects was 45.87±17. 49.33.7% of retired subjects has the highest prevalence was statistically associated with hypertension in occupational status of the subjects, marital status was statically significant with hypertension and prevalence of hypertension among the subjects were 81.1%, 8.5%, 8.6% for married, single and divorcee respectively, (P<0.001) and also no association was observed between hypertension and subjects that occasionally use high salt often(x²=0.341, P>0.001).

Conclusion: The study showed that age, family history of hypertension, consistent increase in blood pressure, occupational and marital status are associated risk factors of hypertension in Awka, South East, Nigeria. There is need to create awareness on the risk factors and encourage changes in sedentary life style.

Background: Adherence to antiretroviral therapy is essential to reduce the multiplication of the virus and improve disease outcomes. The studies have reported a range of factors influencing antiretroviral therapy adherence at various levels. Almost all studies were modeling the factors based on binary categorization of the adherence.

Objective: This study intended to determine the adherence level and its associated factors to antiretroviral therapy among adult people living with human immunodeficiency virus.

Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study that employed among 391 adult patients that were selected by simple random sampling. The cumulative Logit model was used to examine the associations between the outcome of antiretroviral therapy adherence and independent variables.

Results: The study participants with good level of antiretroviral therapy adherence (67.77%) were approximately four times higher than study participants with fair (17.39%) and good (14.83%) adherence levels. As the duration on ART changed from ≤12 months to >12 months, the odds of high adherence/less adherence increased with approximately 61% (p = 0.0347) across the full scale of adherence levels. The estimated odds of patients with a CD4 ≥ 200cells/mm³ was 1.65 (p = 0.0279) times toward poor level of antiretroviral therapy adherence than the estimated odds of patients with CD4 < 200cells/mm³. Study participants who have single marital status tending to have more poor level of adherence to antiretroviral therapy than patients with married marital status (p = 0.0003).

Conclusion: Levels of adherence to the antiretroviral therapy is significantly determined by the duration on antiretroviral therapy, the number of CD4 counts, the types of initial antiretroviral therapy regimens and the marital status of adult people living with HIV/AIDS.

Zinc, an important micronutrient for the storage, structural stabilization, secretion and action of insulin, is present in highest concentration in pancreas. The transport of zinc occurs through the zinc transporter-8 (ZnT8) to the insulin secretory vesicles. Zinc Transporter-8 Autoantibodies (ZnT8A) has been found to be associated with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Recently it is recognized as a new autoantigen in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) and its autoantibodies have been found in 50-60% of individuals with T1DM. Moreover, ZnT8A exhibit humoral auto reactivity which is not displayed by any of the other islet autoantigen like glutamine decarboxylase (GAD), insulin or tyrosine phosphate-related molecules (IA-2). Immunity against ZnT8 is dependent on clinical characteristics, which may provide evidence for early recognition highlighting the importance of this transporter in the pathogenesis of T1DM.

Information regarding this article was retrieved through PubMed, Google Scholar and other search engines available in the University by using the keywords zinc, ZnT, ZnT8, SLC30A8 (Solute carrier 30 member 8) and Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. Information was gathered through original researches, reviews and epidemiological studies published up to August 2019.The aim of this review is to summarize the emerging role of ZnT8A in diagnosis and understanding the genetic basis of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus.