University of Nigeria, Nsukka

About: University of Nigeria, Nsukka is a education organization based out in Nsukka, Nigeria. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 10211 authors who have published 13685 publications receiving 138922 citations.

Increasing coverage of insecticide-treated nets in rural Nigeria: implications of consumer knowledge, preferences and expenditures for malaria prevention

Abstract: Background The coverage of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) remains low despite existing distribution strategies, hence, it was important to assess consumers' preferences for distribution of ITNs, as well as their perceptions and expenditures for malaria prevention and to examine the implications for scaling-up ITNs in rural Nigeria.

A systematic review of the safety and efficacy of artemether-lumefantrine against uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria during pregnancy.

Abstract: Malaria during pregnancy, particularly Plasmodium falciparum malaria, has been linked to increased morbidity and mortality, which must be reduced by both preventive measures and effective case management. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) to treat uncomplicated falciparum malaria during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, and quinine plus clindamycin during the first trimester. However, the national policies of many African countries currently recommend quinine throughout pregnancy. Therefore, the aim of this article is to provide a summary of the available data on the safety and efficacy of artemether-lumefantrine (AL) in pregnancy. An English-language search identified 16 publications from 1989 to October 2011 with reports of artemether or AL exposure in pregnancy, including randomized clinical trials, observational studies and systematic reviews. Overall, there were 1,103 reports of AL use in pregnant women: 890 second/third trimester exposures; 212 first trimester exposures; and one case where the trimester of exposure was not reported. In the second and third trimesters, AL was not associated with increased adverse pregnancy outcomes as compared with quinine or sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine, showed improved tolerability relative to quinine, and its efficacy was non-inferior to quinine. There is evidence to suggest that the pharmacokinetics of anti-malarial drugs may change in pregnancy, although the impact on efficacy and safety needs to be studied further, especially since the majority of studies report high cure rates and adequate tolerability. As there are fewer reports of AL safety in the first trimester, additional data are required to assess the potential to use AL in the first trimester. Though the available safety and efficacy data support the use of AL in the second and third trimesters, there is still a need for further information. These findings reinforce the WHO recommendation to treat uncomplicated falciparum malaria with quinine plus clindamycin in early pregnancy and ACT in later pregnancy.

Westerly Extent of the Range of Three African Lorisoid Primates

Abstract: IN 1958 Booth1 reviewed the zoogeography of West African primates and followed Rosevear2 in placing the Cross River as the western boundary to the range of three Central African lorisoids. These were the angwantibo, Arctocebus calabarensis (Smith), Allen's bushbaby, Galago alleni Waterhouse, and the needle-clawed bushbaby, Euoticus elegantulus (Le Conte). Schwarz3,4 and Hill5 had previously speculated on the Niger as the western boundary, but Rosevear's knowledge of this particular area has given much weight to the theory of the Cross River as a faunal barrier. Apparently unknown to Booth, however, angwantibos had been recorded before 1958 (refs. 6 and 7) from Owerri, Umuahia and Aba, which lie far to the west of the Cross River, and Rosevear himself8 had recorded the animal in a collection brought to him from the Mamu Forest Reserve (see Fig. 1). Through field work in Elastern Nigeria* we have been able to produce new and positive evidence on the distribution of the angwantibo and the bushbabies.