How secured and safe is the sanitation and hygiene services in a maximum-security correctional facility in Southwest Nigeria: a descriptive cross-sectional study.

Poorly maintained living conditions and infrastructure are the banes of Nigerian prisons. The study investigated its environmental conditions and the prevalent diseases among inmates.The descriptive, cross-sectional study enrolled 420-inmates through a multistage sampling technique. Pre-tested instruments were administered and results presented with descriptive and logistic regression to identify predictors of toilet-cleaning and handwashing practices at P∝0.05.The mean(±SD) age and modal inmates/cell were 30±7.2 years and 36. Most inmates were males (97%), await-trial (79%) and lives in overcrowded cells (58%). Sixty-nine percent of free-cells has pour-flush toilets and 36% waits for 2-5 minutes before accessing toilets.Fifty-three percent of inmates clean latrines with water and soap, 71% burn solid waste while handwashing period-prevalence was 36%. Religion, toilet-cleaning, and education were predictors of handwashing while types of toilets and access predict toilet-cleaning behaviour. Malaria (81.1%) and scabies (7.3%) were endemic. The prison rehabilitation shall satisfy basic life needs and promote prisoners' health.

Surveillance for African swine fever in Nigeria, 2006-2009.

African swine fever (ASF) has had significant economic and social impact in Nigeria since 1997. However, there has been no effective national response to bring it under control. In this report, we confirm that ASF is still prevalent and widespread in Nigeria. Results from both serosurveillance and virological analyses indicated that ASF is present in most of the agro-ecological zones of the country. Nine per cent (9%) of serum samples and 48% of tissue samples were positive for ASF virus antibody and genome, respectively. Areas with high pig-related activities (marketing, consumption and farming) have higher prevalences compared with areas with less pig activities. Farm-gate buyers, marketing systems and transport of untested pigs within the country assist with the circulation of the virus. Only by putting in place a comprehensive routine surveillance and testing system, reorganizing the market and transportation systems for pigs, implementing on-farm bio-security protocols and considering the option of compensation will it be possible to achieve a significant reduction in ASF prevalence in Nigeria.

Avian influenza A(H5N1) in humans: lessons from Egypt.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) has ravaged the Egyptian poultry population. Ninety human cases, including 27 fatalities have been recorded by 30 December, 2009. However, epidemiological information on the infection in humans in Egypt is scarce. We analysed the first three years of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) in Egypt between 20 March 2006 and 31 August 2009) and found that more cases occurred in females than males, especially in 2006 and 2007. Women in the age group 20-39 years had the greatest tendency to be infected. It took an average of one day and 18 hours to seek medical assistance in patients who recovered and of six days in fatal cases. Children sought treatment much earlier than adults. On average, a patient died 11 days after the onset of symptoms. Exposure to infected poultry remained the most important risk factor.