ABSTRACT
The scourge of HIV/AIDS is a serious problem that cannot be overemphasized. Half of all HIV infections occur in women in Africa. Young women are particularly at risk and they are the child-bearing population. About 90% of MTCT infections occur in Africa. MTCT of HIV can occur at any stage of pregnancy. The study was designed to be a baseline survey which would help document the knowledge of Women living with HIV/AIDS and its transmission modes and the PMTCT programme of the HIV Clinic in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital can be used as template for future work. A survey of women attending the HIV Clinic in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idiaraba (LUTH) was carried out. Pretested questionnaires were administered to the target population at the HIV Clinic to document their knowledge of HIV and its transmission including awareness of the PMTCT services in the hospital. The results obtained revealed that though many of them are knowledgeable about the modes of transmission of HIV, most of them do not know of the existence of a PMTCT service in the hospital. It can be concluded that respondents in this survey were knowledgeable about HIV and the ways it can be transmitted. The study recommends that staff of the HIV Clinic should be involved in counseling PLWHAs, especially WLWHAs and informing them about all the service components available in the Clinic so that clients that may need these services are already aware and can utilize it as needed.
ABSTRACT
Background:It is aknown fact that health professionals can play a critical role in reducing tobacco use. In fact; it has been shown that even brief and simple advice from health care professionals can substantially increase smoking cessation rates. Students in healthcare professions are future healthcare professionals; identifying and documenting their knowledge; attitudes and practices with regards to tobacco smoking would shed light as to their future effectiveness in providing this much needed public health initiative in their practices. Objective: This research was carried out to determine cigarette smoking habit among healthcare professional students of University of Lagos and Nursing students of Lagos University Teaching Hospital. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional descriptive survey. Data was collected by the use of a structured; self administered questionnaire which was aimed at determining their smoking status and their attitudes. The target population was first and final professional year students representing the two class extremes and attempt was made to survey all the students that fell within this identified target population without randomization. Data was collected between March and June 2007 Results: Out of 814 qualified participants; 433 responded to the questionnaire (53). Smoking prevalence was highest among dental students (8.48) while both Physiotherapy and Nursing students had nil prevalence rates. Overall; the current smoking prevalence was 3.93. There was no statistically significant difference between the smoking habits of first year and final year students (p= 0.99). Based on Fagerstrom nicotine addiction test; only a small proportion of the current smokers can be classified as being maximally addicted (6.0). Conclusions: From this study it can be concluded that smoking prevalence is low among healthcare professional students at the University of Lagos and this is a good indication that they would play critical role in reducing tobacco use. It is recommended that a tobacco counselling unit should be set up by the school authority