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Background: Monkeypox (MPX) is endemic in Nigeria, but it was first reported in Adamawa state, North-Eastern Nigeria, in January 2022. There are currently 172 cases of MPX in Nigeria, with four reported deaths, and Adamawa has the second-highest case count. Therefore, this study was undertaken to evaluate the epidemiological profile of this viral disease., Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. The skin and blood samples were screened for the presence for Monkeypox virus (MPXV) and Varicella Zoster virus (VZV) DNA by real-time PCR; the clinical diagnosis was based on symptoms of visual signs of skin lesions and other clinical symptoms from January to July 2022., Results: A total of 33 suspected cases aged 1-57 years [26 (79%) males vs. 7 (21%) females] were screened for MPX and VZV. Twenty-four (72.7%) were positive (6.1% were MPX only, 39% were VZV only, and 27% were both MPX and VZV). Most cases of MPX (82%), VZV (69%) and MPX-VZV co-infection (78%) occurred in males. More than half (54%) of those infected were children and adolescents between 0 and 19 years. All patients experienced body rashes and itching, and other clinical symptoms included fever, headache, mouth sores, muscle aches and lymphadenopathy. Over 64 and 86% of patients had contact with livestock and rodents, respectively., Conclusion: MPXV, VZV and MPXV-VZV co-infections occurred predominantly among males and children in Adamawa state, Nigeria. Given the patient contact with rodents and livestock, further research on the animal reservoir is needed to highlight the transmission of MPXV in Adamawa., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Stephen, Alele, Olumoh, Tyndall, Okeke and Adegboye.)

Healthcare workers (HCWs) face an unprecedented higher risk of COVID-19 infection due to their work and exposure. In this study, we aim to examine the associated risk factors for COVID-19 infection among HCWs in North-East Nigeria. We used data collected retrospectively among a cohort of clinical and non-clinical HCWs in six healthcare facilities in Adamawa State, Nigeria. We estimated the marginal probability of COVID-19 infection among HWCs using alternating logistic regression via the generalized estimating equations (GEE) approach. Among the 318 HCWs, 178 (55.97%) were males, mean (±SD) age was 36.81 (±8.98), 237 (74.76%) were clinical, and 80 (25.24) were non-clinical staff. The overall prevalence of COVID-19 was 16.67% among HCWs. After adjusting for other variables in the model, our results showed that clinical staff had a 5-fold higher risk of COVID-19 infection than non-clinical staff (aOR = 5.07, 95% CI: 1.32-19.52). Moreover, significant exposure risk factors for COVID-19 infection for HCWs increase with age, time spent attending to patients, caring for COVID-19 patients, and having worked with COVID-19 samples, while the risk decreases with the use of an N95 mask. Our findings suggested that the burden of COVID-19 infection is higher for clinical staff than non-clinical staff, and increasing age contributed to the increased risk.

Background: Leishmaniasis remains one of the world's most neglected vector-borne diseases, affecting predominantly poor communities mainly in developing countries. Previous studies have shown that the distribution and dynamics of leishmaniasis infections are sensitive to environmental factors, however, there are no studies on the burden of leishmaniasis attributable to time-varying meteorological variables., Methods: This study used data from 3 major leishmaniosis afflicted provinces of Afghanistan, between 2003 and 2009, to provide empirical analysis of change in heat/cold-leishmaniosis association. Non-linear and delayed exposure-lag-response relationship between meteorological variables and leishmaniasis were fitted with a distributed lag non-linear model applying a spline function which describes the dependency along the range of values with a lag of up to 12 months. We estimated the risk of leishmaniasis attributable to high and low temperature., Results: The median monthly mean temperature and rainfall were 16.1 °C and 0.6 in., respectively. Seasonal variations of leishmaniasis were consistent between males and females, however significant differences were observed among different age groups. Temperature effects were immediate and persistent (lag 0-12 months). The cumulative risks were highest at cold temperatures. The cumulative relative risks (logRR) for leishmaniasis were 6.16 (95% CI: 5.74-6.58) and 1.15 (95% CI: 1.32-1.31) associated with the 10th percentile temperature (2.16 °C) and the 90th percentile temperature (28.46 °C). The subgroup analysis showed increased risk for males as well as young and middle aged people at cold temperatures, however, higher risk was observed for the elderly in heat. The overall leishmaniasis-temperature attributable fractions was estimated to be 7.6% (95% CI: 7.5%-7.7%) and mostly due to cold., Conclusion: Findings in this study highlight the non-linearity, delay of effects and magnitude of leishmaniasis risk associated with temperature. The disparity of risk between different subgroups can hopefully advise policy makers and assist in leishmaniasis control program., (Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)