Haematological indices and coagulation profile as predictors of disease severity and associations with clinical outcome among COVID­19 patients in Lagos, Nigeria

Background: This study aims to evaluate the use of haematological indices and coagulation profiles as possible low cost predictors of disease severity and their associations with clinical outcomes in COVID 19 hospitalized patients in Nigeria. Materials and Methods: We carried out a hospital based descriptive 3 month observational longitudinal study of 58 COVID 19 positive adult patients admitted at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria. We used a structured questionnaire to obtain the participants' relevant sociodemographic and clinical data, including disease severity. Basic haematologic indices, their derivatives, and coagulation profile were obtained from patients' blood samples. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to compare these laboratory based values with disease severity. A P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean age of the patients was 54.4 ± 14.8 years. More than half of the participants were males (55.2%, n = 32) and most had at least one comorbidity (79.3%, n = 46). Significantly higher absolute neutrophil count (ANC), neutrophil­lymphocyte ratio (NLR), systemic immune inflammation index (SII), lower absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) and lymphocyte­monocyte ratio (LMR) were associated with severe disease (P< 0.05). Patients' hemoglobin concentration (P= 0.04), packed cell volume (P< 0.001), and mean cell hemoglobin concentration (P= 0.03) were also significantly associated with outcome. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of disease severity was significant for the ANC, ALC, NLR, LMR, and SII. The coagulation profile did not show any significant associations with disease severity and outcomes in this study. Conclusion: Our findings identified haematological indices as possible low cost predictors of disease severity in COVID 19 in Nigeria

Pattern, challenges and correlates of condom use among Nigerians living with HIV infection

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To determine the pattern, challenges and correlates of condom use among Nigerians living with HIV Infection.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A cross sectional questionnaire study among HIV positive adults attending an HIV treatment centre in Lagos, Nigeria. Data entry and analysis were done with Epi-info version 3.5.1.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The mean age of respondents was 35 (SD=7.7; range: 17-58 years) and mean age at sexual debut was 20 years old (range: 7-37 years). Majority were women (66.6%), had at least secondary school education(91.1%), married (68.2%)), on ART (50.7%) and knew their partners HIV status(60.9%). The rate of condom use at last sex act was 65.9%, but only 48.8% used condom consistently. Factors associated with condom use were male gender (OR=2.43, CI=1.35-4.33, P=0.002), less than secondary school education (OR=3.12, CI=1.04-9.28, P=0.05) and Not knowing partner's HIV status (OR=1.90, CI=1.04-3.80, P=0.04). Refusal to use condom (28.4%) were as a result of pregnancy intention, undesirability of condom in marriage and decreased sexual pleasure.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>There is low consistent condom use rate of 48.8% among this cohort despite their exposure to behavioural change messages. A review of the present counselling strategy and combination prevention is therefore advocated.</p>