Prevalence of chlamydia trachomatis infection in infertile women attending fertility clinics in Benin city, Nigeria: a public health concern

This study was carried out to deduce the prevalence of Chlamydia infection amongst infertile women attending fertility clinics in Benin City, Nigeria. Fifty infertile women with either primary or secondary infertility and with their ages ranging from 24 to 51 years were enrolled for this study. The serum of each patient was screened for Chlamydia antibodies with the enzyme-linked immune-sorbent assay (ELISA) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) index of 0.90 or less was reported as seronegative for IgG antibody, while IgG index of 1.00 or greater were positive for IgG antibody. Findings in the present study revealed that 24 % to 52 % of the patients that attend the fertility clinics in Benin City, Nigeria were most likely to be infected with Chlamydia; with the primary infertile patients accounting for 32 % of the cases and secondary infertile patients for 68 % of the cases. Prevalence of Chlamydia infection was also found to be quite high amongst women aged between 36 and 40 years old. Since lack of symptoms often makes the clinical diagnosis of Chlamydia infection somewhat difficult, thus increasing the prevalence of this disease; routine screening is recommended to enable early therapeutic interventions of positive cases

Influence of door handles on the proliferation of microorganisms of public health importance in university of Benin Staff Offices

The aim of this research was to determine the role of door handles in the proliferation of microorganisms in staff offices within University of Benin, Benin City. Isolation and characterization of isolates was carried out using standard methods. The results of this study showed that surfaces of door handles of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Microbiology and Chemistry Departments had high bacterial count, which ranged from 6.17 ± 0.75 × 104 cfu/cm2 - 7.45 ± 0.67 × 104 cfu/cm2, while Geology, Physics and Adult Education had low counts (3.31 ± 0.64 × 104 cfu/cm2 - 3.55 ± 0.80 × 104 cfu/cm2). The bacterial isolates were: Staphylococcus epidermidis, Citrobacter sp., Escherichia coli, Enterobacter sp., Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella sp., Streptococcus pyogenes, Corynebacterium sp., Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus vulgaris, while the fungal isolates were Rhizopus sp., Aspergillus niger, Fusarium sp., Penicillium sp. and Mucor sp. The most predominant bacterial isolate was Staphylococcus aureus (25.22%), while Citrobacter sp. (1.74%) was the least. Plasmid profile revealed plasmid fragments in all the bacterial isolates, with most of the isolates, being multi-drug resistant. Results showed that door handles harbor pathogenic organisms. Therefore, everyone is encouraged to have good personal hygiene, use of hand-sanitizers, hand-washing before and after the use of door handles and routine surface disinfection of door handles in order to prevent cross-contamination