Maternal and child health service readiness among primary health care facilities in Ekiti, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND:  The availability of adequate infrastructure, diagnostic medical equipment, medicines and commodities and well-trained medical personnel are essential for the effective delivery of health care services. AIM:  This study assessed maternal and child health (MCH) services' specific readiness by type and location of the health facility and compared the readiness between urban and rural primary health care (PHC) facilities in Ekiti State, Nigeria. SETTING:  The study was conducted amongst the heads (officers in charge) of PHC facilities in Ekiti State, Nigeria between August 2020 and October 2020. METHODS:  A descriptive cross-sectional study in which all PHC facilities were conducted and data were collected with the aid of the Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) tool using the KoboCollect app. Data were cleaned and coded on Microsoft Excel 2016 and exported to Stata SE 12 for analysis. The level of significance was set at p  0.05. RESULTS:  Overall, the MCH readiness score amongst PHC facilities was 47% (0.47 ± 0.18). About half (52%) of the facilities had necessary and relevant equipment. Health facilities located in urban areas had more medicines and commodities compared with those of rural areas (0.51 ± 0.16 vs 0.45 ± 0.17, p  0.05). Primary health care facilities in Ekiti North I had an overall higher service readiness score (0.63 ± 0.19) compared with other federal constituencies (p  0.001). CONCLUSION:  The overall MCH-specific service readiness in Ekiti State was relatively low. Strategies to address the identified gaps for a smooth journey towards the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) are recommended.

Hand hygiene practices in the context of Ebola virus disease: A cross-sectional survey of Lagos residents.

BACKGROUND: The Ebola virus disease outbreak that ravaged parts of West Africa has been described as the most severe acute public health emergency seen in modern times. Hand washing was promoted among other measures for infection prevention. OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the awareness of Ebola virus disease and hand-washing practices among Lagos residents, southwest Nigeria. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was used. A total of 1982 respondents aged 18 ⩾ years were selected using a multi stage sampling technique. An interviewer-administered, pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection between August and November 2015. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22, with level of significance set at 0.05. RESULTS: Almost all (97.3%) respondents were aware of Ebola virus disease, with over half of respondents having heard about it from television. A majority of 1890 (95.4%) respondents were aware of the importance of hand washing in disease prevention. Similarly, high proportions of respondents were aware they should wash their hands after an outing, toilet use, touching pets, before and after meals, while 1628 (82.1%) of respondents knew to wash their hands after a hand shake. However, less than half of respondents (38.8%) always washed their hands after handshakes. DISCUSSION: A majority of respondents surveyed were aware of Ebola virus disease and hand washing, but the practice of hand washing, which is key in prevention of infection, lagged behind the knowledge of the respondents.