Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of People towards Onchocerciasis among Local People Living in Tafa Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria

The study is aimed atassessingthe knowledge, attitude and practice of peoplein Ija-Gwari and Kofa in Niger State towards onchocerciasis, structured questionnaires wereadministered to 300 respondents comprising 150 from each of the village, which is about 5% of the total population size of the two villages. The sampling technique used to administer the questionnaire was systemic sampling method. In Kofa and Ija-Gwari village, a high proportion 74 (49.3%) and 80 (53.3%) respectively thought it was both a blood and an eye infection while few of the respondents 8 (5.3%) and 2 (1.45%) respectively claimed to have no idea of river blindness. In Kofa village, out of 150 respondents, 146 (97.3%) said they accepted taking the drug and 4 (2.7%) did not accept taking the drug. In Ija-Gwari village out of 150 respondents, 144 (95.9%) said theyaccepted taking the drug and 6 (4.1%) did not accept taking the drug. In Kofa village, outof the 150 respondents, 148 (98.7%) use ivermectin as the type of treatment, while In Ija-Gwari village, out of the 150 respondents 149 (99.3%) use ivermectin as the type of treatment.Since lack of knowledge perpetuates disease, appropriate health education strategy will be necessary to improve the situation

C-glycosyl flavonoid orientin alleviates learning and memory impairment by radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation in mice via improving antioxidant defence mechanism

Objective: To investigate the antioxidant efficacy of oral orientin on 900 MHz radiofrequencyelectromagnetic radiation-induced oxidative stress in mice. Methods: The mice were randomly allotted into 5 groups consisting of 7 mice each. The deionised water and radiofrequency electromagnetic radiations (RF-EMR) groups were administered with deionised water while orientin was administered to the RF-EMR + low dose of orientin group (10 mg/kg), RF-EMR + high dose of orientin group (20 mg/kg) and high dose of orientin group (20 mg/kg). All the groups except deionised water and high dose groups were exposed to 900 MHz radiofrequency-electromagnetic radiation for 28 consecutive days (1 h/day). Learning and memory was assessed via the step-down inhibitory avoidance task. Activities of lipid prexidation and antioxidant enzymes were measured using kits. Results: Radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation caused impairment in learning and memory and reduced activities of brain antioxidant enzymes, increased lipoperoxidation and corticosterone concentration as well as histopathological aberrations in the hippocampal tissues. Conversely, orientin alleviated learning and memory deficit, improved the activities of endogenous antioxidant enzymes and mitigated brain lipoperoxidation and neuronal degeneration in mice exposed to radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation. Conclusions: Orientin alleviates learning and memory impairment due to radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation in mice by improving antioxidant defence mechanism and may be considered as a promising therapeutic agent for improving the antioxidant system of people living in radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation-prone environment.

Optimization of sample preparation for 1-hydroxypyrene as a major biomarker of exposure to PAHs prior to HPLC

Urinary 1-hydroxypuren [1-OHP] is commonly used as a major metabolite and biological indicator of the overall exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs]. For evaluation of human exposure to such compounds, biological monitoring is an essential process, in which, preparation of samples is one of the most time-consuming and error-prone aspects prior to chromatographic techniques. In this study, non classic form of liquid-liquid extraction [LLE] was optimized with regard to solvent type, solvent volume, extraction temperature, mixing type, and mixing duration. Through the extraction process, a mild temperature was used to keep the compound of interest as stable as possible. In this study, a high performance liquid chromatography, using reverse-phase column was used. The isocratic run was done at a constant flow rate of 0.8 ml/min, the mobile phase was methanol/water and a fluorescence detector was used, setting at 242 nm and 388 nm. At the developed conditions, the extraction recovery was exceeded 87.3%, achieving detection limit of 0.2 micro g/l. The factors were evaluated statically and the procedure was validated with three different pools of spiked urine samples and showed a good reproducibility over six consecutive days as well as experiments. It was concluded that, this optimized method could simplify sample preparation for trace residue analysis of PAHs metabolites

Red cell deformability versus capillary diameter in diabetic foot

21 patients complaining of diabetes mellitus complicated by diabetic foot, mainly gangrene [15 subjects] and diabetic ulcer [six subjects] were selected. 25 patients served as control for RBCs deformability and five control subjects for measuring capillary diameters. A full clinical examination, urine analysis for sugar and fasting blood sugar were estimated to them. A full histopathological examination was done including measurement of capillary diameters using morphometric eye lens and ordinary light microscope. The longitudinal and transverse diameters were measured and the mean capillary diameter was calculated in five high power field in every section. RBCs deformability test was carried out and the RBCs flow time was measured. The mean capillary diameter for diabetics was significantly lower than that for controls and the red blood cell flow time was also significantly longer. There were no significant changes in capillary diameter and red cell flow time in both NIDD and IDD. The capillary diameter and RBCs deformability were inversly proportionate with the duration of the disease. Endothelial swelling as well as endothelial proliferation were noticed in 78.94%, 100% showed thickened basement membrane. So in diabetes more rigid red cells and increased viscosity at low shear rate are likely to promote stasis in the capillaries and postcapillary venules, sites where the very rarly vascular lesions in diabetes characteristically occur