COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND ITS POTENTIAL IMPACT ON SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH INDICATORS IN NIGERIA

The impact of the novel corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic cuts across all sectors and has brought to the fore the true realities and status of health systems globally, revealing the gaps and cracks even in seemingly perfect health systems. The fragile and weak health system in the country is also riddled with a lot of sub-optimal health indicators including reproductive health. It is important to anticipate and look out for these effects in order to plan for and ensure early detection and necessary intervention to mitigate such. This paper discusses the potential effect of COVID-19 on reproductive health indicators in Nigeria. The reproductive health indices of a population have far and wide reaching impact on the health status of the population. However, reproductive health indicators are usually among the worst hit during health emergencies or disasters as seen in the Ebola pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Interventions must be put in place so that the pandemic does not set Nigeria back from the marginal gains made in reproductive health over the years.

An Assessment of Perceived Stigmatization of Patients Infected with COVID-19 in the Nation's Epicenter of the Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study of Residents of Agege, Lagos, Nigeria

BACKGROUND: In some parts of Africa, the patients and those who survived COVID-19 are stigmatized and this has impeded the response activities put in place to control the pandemic. Inspite of this, most efforts in preventing COVID-19 were geared towards the use of non-pharmacologic measures without corresponding measures to dissipate stigmatization in the community. Therefore, this study assessed the factors associated with perceived stigmatization of patients with COVID-19 among residents of Agege local government, Lagos State, Nigeria. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey among 333 consenting residents recruited from Agege local government area (LGA) using a multi-stage sampling technique. A semistructure, interviewer-administered questionnaire adapted from the People Living with Human Immunodefiency Virus (PLHIV) Stigma Index was used to collect data on socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of COVID-19 and perceived stigmatization. Bivariate analysis was done using Chi-square and binary logistic regression was used to identify the determinants of perceived stigmatization at 5% level of significance. RESULTS: The mean age of the respondents was 35.7 ± 13.6 years. Awareness about COVID-19 outbreak was 95.2%. Television (43.5%) and radio (36.9%) were the two major sources of information on COVID-19 infection and prevention. The proportions of the respondents who had poor knowledge and perceived stigmatization of COVID-19 patients were 50.0% and 47.7% respectively. A higher likelihood of perceived stigmatization was found among those aged 25 - 49 years (aOR= 3.1, 95% CI = 1.4 - 6.7), > 50 years (aOR= 2.1, 95% CI = 1.1 - 3.9) and married respondents (aOR= 1.8, 95% CI = 1.1 - 2.9). CONCLUSION: The study highlights the poor knowledge about COVID-19 and a high level of stigmatization. Hence, targeted health educational interventions are urgently needed for the residents of Agege, most especially among married respondents as well as the adults.

On the primacy of emotion: "The order of things" - From Aristotle, James, Darwin, Tomkins, To Ekman, Izard... Boyle, And Akande

For centuries, emotion has been a conundrum for scholars because it punctuates, marks or changes magnitude of all major events in human and organizational lives. Each individual's human emotional experience is culturally constructed or socio-culturally created under specific conditions, with the involvement of other human agents or variables to the causal processes. To advance research, we draw from theories and philosophical thoughts across cultures, from ancient times to modern era. In that context, emotion is the sine qua non of the totality of Yorùbá's beliefs about reality and it is the heart and soul of connectedness between people or places. The present study assessed human emotion factors among a business-oriented population and compared these views with distinctions proposed in the literature. Using a repeated-measure multiple discriminant function analysis for individual items across raters. Neither the Interest subscale or Surprise subscale nor the Guilt subscale demonstrated significant retest correlations in a comparison of the General and Specific Depression conditions;and also, of the Specific Depression and pre-examination conditions. More specifically, culturally mediated beliefs, values and traditions associated with socialization practices (political skills in case of workplace), have been hypothesized to play a role in the kinds of emotions display. Alternative interpretations of the data are examined and theoretical issues in need of further clarification are discussed. By discussing caveats, the chapter laid foundations for artifacts that can guide future thoughtful research and the potential utility of this measure, and the likes for several areas of organizational, social and business research phenomena. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Infection prevention and control during COVID-19 pandemic: realities from health care workers in a north central state in Nigeria.

Health care workers (HCWs) are vulnerable to the risk of infections and could become vectors of onward transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Little is known about the factors which could contribute to increased COVID-19 infection among HCWs in Nigeria. We aimed at assessing the causes of COVID-19 infection among HCWs. We used a qualitative study design to conduct in-depth interview among 16 frontline HCWs participating in the COVID-19 response in Kwara State, Nigeria. Colaizzi's phenomenological method was used in the qualitative analysis of data. We found that HCWs were aware of their vulnerability to the COVID-19 infection, and the reasons attributed included poor knowledge of IPC measures for COVID-19, inadequate supply of personal protective equipment (PPE), poor political will and inadequate health facilities (HFs) management support. Improved political will and better involvement of HFs management teams in infection prevention and control (IPC) systems are needed to reduce the risk for COVID-19 infection among HCWs. We recommend scale-up training on IPC measures particularly hand washing and use of PPE as well as the development of effective points of care risk assessment with a high index of suspicion in HFs.

Overcoming covid-19 in west african countries: Is herd immunity an option?

The coronavirus infection (COVID-19) to date has no vaccine or effective treatment. Herd immunity offers indirect protection to susceptible members of the population. If the acquired immunity of a community rises above 67%, then a gradual decline in the number of incident cases is recorded. How many deaths would have occurred in the West African countries by the time at least 67% of our people are infected with the present case fatality rate (CFR)? The objective of this study was to develop a forecast of the number of COVID-19 deaths that would be recorded to attain herd immunity for each country in West-Africa. We predicted the numbers of deaths using publicly available demographic and COVID-19 data. To attain herd immunity in West Africa 5.2 million COVID-19 deaths would have occurred assuming the CFR is maintained at the current rates in the region. Attention should be focused on strategies that would limit the spread of infection and protect the most vulnerable population groups while the race to develop an effective vaccine should be hastened. © 2020, African Field Epidemiology Network. All rights reserved.