Search

Aims: To determine the prevalence of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and its variant (G6PD A-) among children diagnosed with Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Katsina state, Nigeria. Study Design: Cross-Sectional Studies. Place and Duration of Study: General Hospitals Katsina, Dutsin-ma, Daura, Baure, Malumfashi and Funtua of Katsina state, Nigeria from June, 2020 to December, 2020. Methodology: A total of 200 blood samples were collected from the study subjects after getting the ethical approval and informed consent. Their socio-demographic information and clinical presentations were also noted with the aid of questionnaire. G6PD deficiency was detected using G6PD qualitative test. Molecular characterization of African A- Variants was carried out using PCR and Sanger sequencing. Phylogenetic studies were carried out to analyze the relationship between the types of mutations found in Nigeria and other countries. Results: The G6PD qualitative test shows that 35(17.5%) samples were G6PD deficient which indicates significant association (P0.05), hence does not appear to have a role in G6PD deficiency among children in the selected area of Katsina state, Nigeria though our findings were limited by the small sample size.

There are increasing reports on the high incidence of substandard drugs, especially in developing countries.Pharmaceutical products have been reported to contain either no, low, or excessive amounts of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). Inview of the above, 112 samples of six different antibiotic oral drug formulations were evaluated for chemical quality by assessing the presence and the percentage content of the stated active pharmaceutical ingredients using validated HPLC assay as described in the official monograph of the British and United Stated pharmacopoeia. The result indicates that 43 (38.4%) had active ingredients outside the set pharmacopoeial limit and therefore were non-compliant to the BP and the USP specifications for percentage content. Ampiclox and Cotrimoxazole had the highest proportion of samples with active ingredient outside the pharmacopoeial limit, and in three samples (one Augmentin and two Ampiclox), no active ingredient was detected. The presence of API lower than the claimed content declared on the packaging was the primary cause of non-compliance. The potential implications of the use of substandard drugs are treatment failure and the development of drug-resistance.