Uptake of cervical cancer screening services among female medical practitioners in Ogun State, South-West Nigeria

Background: There is an increasing awareness of cancer screening services in the general population, but the uptake of the services varies.Objective: To determine the uptake of cervical cancer screening services among female medical doctors as service providers.Methods: This was a questionnaire-based, cross-sectional, descriptive study of female doctors practising in Ogun State, Nigeria. The questionnaires were self-administered, and convenience sampling method was used.Results: A total of 85 female doctors were surveyed. A little over half of the respondents (57.6%) reported routine medical checks and 54.2% of the respondents had a check up in the last two years. Seventy percent of the respondents who had a routine medical check-up and screening for cervical cancer were within the age range 31-50 years, and there were significant relationships between age and routine medical check-up and screening for cervical cancer (p values =0.014 and 0.005 respectively. Thirty-three of the respondents (39.8%) had ever been screened for cervical cancer while only 30.1% of the respondents had been screened for cervical cancer in the last three years. The majority of the respondents (59.8%) did not approve of making cervical cancer screening a condition for social benefits.Conclusion: Female medical doctors had a low uptake rate for cervical cancer screening services. The low uptake may adversely affect the cervical cancer screening campaigns targeted at the general population. Mandatory cervical cancer screening, as a prerequisite for social benefit, may improve the uptake rates for the screening services

Seroprevalence of HIV among blood donors, antenatal women and other patients in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria

HIV/AIDS continues to remain a nightmare in the developing nations of the world especially in Nigeria, where about 2.9 million people are living with this problem. This study aimed at determining the sero-prevalence of HIV among both patients and blood donors at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria. Samples were collected between January 1st, 2005 and December, 31st 2006 and were screened using two rapid test kits, with two different principles (enzymatic and agglutination). Samples positive to the two methods were taken as truly sero-positive. The seropositive rate among blood donors, antenatal women, in- and out patients were, 3.2 percent, 6.9 percent and 17.5 percent respectively. There were five cases of positivity to both HIV I and II. Antenatal women between the ages of 26-35 were found responsible for 5.3 percent of the total positivity among antenatal women. Though, there is high prevalence rate among in- and out-patients, many of these were screened based on manifestation of clinical symptoms. However, more is to be done in the area of prevention of this disease, since no cure is yet found.