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Background: Prompt administration of antibiotics to children with pneumonia significantly reduces the probability of death. However this requires early identification of such children in the community. In a country such as Nigeria with one of the highest pneumoniarelated deaths, what do mothers know about pneumonia, and what should be the content of public campaign messages? Methods: A structured questionnaire was administered to mothers attending paediatric clinics of Lagos University Teaching Hospital seeking their knowledge about the definition, causes, risk factors and symptoms of childhood pneumonia. Results: One hundred and seven (107) consecutive mothers participated in the study. The majority (97; 90.6%) had at least secondary education, were married (96; 89.7%) and professed to be either Christians or Muslims (105; 98.1%). Prior to the study, 16 (15%) had not heard about pneumonia. About half of the participants correctly identified fast/difficult breathing as suggestive of pneumonia. Threequarters reported exposure to coldas the cause of childhood pneumonia. Minimizing exposure to cold and wearing warm clothes were the two commonest reported ways of preventing pneumonia (75.8% and 49.5% of the mothers respectively); in contrast hand washing, exclusive breastfeeding and limiting exposure to sick persons with cough and catarrh were the least mentioned. The proportion of mothers who correctly identified fast/difficult breathing as suggestive of pneumonia was similar irrespective of educational status or source of pneumonia information. Conclusion: Mothers’ knowledge of childhood pneumonia is low. Public campaigns on pneumonia should focus on raising awareness about germs as cause of pneumonia, immunization, hand washing and exclusive breastfeeding as potent preventive strategies and fast/difficult breathing as a feature of pneumonia.

Background: Spontaneous Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) reporting is the cornerstone of Pharmacovigilance. It is very important that pharmacists are alert to potential adverse drug reactions and drug interactions. The contribution of community pharmacists towards ADR reporting in four regions of Lagos state, Nigeria was studied. Objective: The main aim of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of community pharmacists to ADR and its reporting. Method: This questionnaire based survey was conducted over a period of four months in 30 community pharmacies each (120 respondents) in four areas of Lagos state (Ikorodu, Victoria Island, Surulere and Ikeja). The developed questionnaire contained sections on the demographic details of the pharmacists, knowledge, perception and evaluation of the pharmacists on ADR and its reporting, and factors influencing ADR reporting. The data obtained was entered unto Microsoft Excel and analysed using frequency and percentage. Results: Over 96% agreed that the spontaneous reporting of suspected ADRs is necessary for pharmacovigilance. The analysis showed that the pharmacists had good knowledge of ADRs but the reporting rate was only 24.2%. This means that though the pharmacists were knowledgeable about ADRs, they were not putting its reporting into practice due to several reasons. Conclusion: The knowledge of ADRs and its reporting by community pharmacists in Lagos state needs to be improved upon. Continuous education, training and integration of ADR reporting into the clinical activities of the pharmacists by the Pharmacovigilance centre and other relevant personnel would improve reporting.

Background: Family planning is a cost-effective intervention in the prevention of maternal, infant and child mortality. However, its uptake has been hamstrung by a myriad of factors in Northern Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. Objective: To determine the prevalence as well as determinants of current contraceptive use in Adamawa State, northern Nigeria. Methods: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional in design. The participants were married women of reproductive age in Jada Local Government Area of Adamawa State. Participants were selected by multistage sampling technique. An interviewer-administered structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Results: Five hundred and eighty married women participated in the study. The mean age of the respondents was 30.9±6.6 years. Five hundred and eleven (88.4%) were aware of contraceptives. However, the current rate of contraceptive use was 31.4%. The predictors of contraceptive use included the level of education (p = 0.006) and discussion with husband (p

Abstract Background Recent reports suggest an increase in sexually-transmitted hepatitis C infection among HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSM) in European cities. We investigated whether current national surveillance systems in England and Wales (E&W) are able to monitor sexual transmission of hepatitis C infection among HIV-infected MSM. Methods Routine laboratory reports of hepatitis C diagnoses and data from sentinel hepatitis C testing surveillance were matched to HIV diagnosis reports to determine: (i) the number of MSM diagnosed with HIV and hepatitis C (1996–2003); (ii) the number of HIV-diagnosed MSM tested for hepatitis C and found to be positive at sentinel sites (2003). Results (i) Between 1996–2003, 38,027 hepatitis C diagnoses were reported; 25,938 (68%) were eligible for matching with HIV diagnoses. Thirty-one men (four in London) had both a HIV and hepatitis C diagnosis where the only risk was sex with another man. Numbers of "co-diagnosed" MSM increased from 0 in 1996 to 14 in 2003. The majority of MSM (22/31) tested hepatitis C positive after HIV diagnosis. (ii) Of 78,058 test results from sentinel hepatitis C testing sites in 2003, 67,712 (87%) were eligible for matching with HIV diagnoses. We identified 242 HIV-diagnosed MSM who did not inject drugs who tested for hepatitis C in 2003; 11 (4.5%) tested hepatitis C positive (95%CI: 2.3%–8.0%). Applying this percentage to all MSM seen for HIV-related care in E&W in 2003, an estimated 680 MSM living with diagnosed HIV would have tested positive for sexually-transmitted hepatitis C (95%CI: 346–1208). Conclusion Matching routine laboratory reports of hepatitis C diagnoses with HIV diagnoses only identified 31 HIV infected MSM with sexually-transmitted hepatitis C infection. Clinical studies suggest that this is an underestimate. On the other hand, matching sentinel surveillance reports with HIV diagnoses revealed that in E&W in 2003 nearly 5% of HIV-diagnosed MSM tested hepatitis C positive where the only risk was sex with another man. Reports of sexually-transmitted hepatitis C infection were not confined to London. Enhanced surveillance is needed to monitor sexually-transmitted hepatitis C among HIV-infected MSM in E&W.

Phase Change Materials (PCMs) are being increasingly recognized for their pivotal role in thermal regulation but are hindered by low thermal conductivity (TC) and leakage issues. Efforts to improve their thermal performance have typically involved enhancing one-directional TC with highly oriented one-dimensional or layered carbon fillers, leading to high anisotropy. However, the complexities of aligning these materials have prompted a shift toward exploring 3D materials with isotropically high thermal conductivity and anti-leakage properties. Here, we developed a novel 3D graphite fiber-backboned graphitic foam composite (GFBGF) to address these challenges. Our approach involves the infiltration of a graphite fiber matrix, exhibiting a preferred xy-plane orientation, with mesophase pitch. Subsequent confined foaming induces a vertical alignment of graphite crystal structure, significantly enhancing the cross-plane TC in a single, scalable operation. Remarkably, the GFBGF-PCM composite exhibits high TC of 33.05 W m−1 K−1 and 18.76 W m−1 K−1 in the in-plane and cross-plane directions, respectively, and an exceptionally low anisotropy ratio of only 1.75. In addition, the novel interconnected composite architecture encapsulates PCMs to prevent leakage during phase transitions. The simplicity and scalability of the fabrication approach offers a promising solution to unlock the full potential of PCMs across thermal energy storage, solar energy harvesting, and broader renewable technology sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Realizing efficient electrocatalysts is a stepping stone toward achieving high‐performance alkaline water/seawater electrolysis, but remains a crucial challenge. Herein, heterogeneous Mo2N/Ni3Mo3N electrocatalysts on nickel foam (denoted MN‐NMN/NF) that is stable and active for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in both alkaline water/seawater are demonstrated. The optimized MN‐NMN09/NF achieves an ultralow HER overpotential of 11 mV@10 mA cm−2 in 1.0 m KOH electrolyte, which is not only superior to the benchmark Pt/C catalysts but also the best reported ever among NiMo‐based electrocatalysts in an alkaline environment. Successively, the optimized MN‐NMN09/NF electrocatalyst can drive HER current densities of 10 and 500 mA cm−2 using low overpotentials of 9.37 and 123 mV in 1.0 m KOH seawater electrolyte, which remains durable after 120 h long‐term electrolysis at a constant current density of 500 mA cm−2. In situ Raman analysis reveals that the enhanced performance is attributed to the accelerated H2O adsorption and OH dissociation processes on the MN‐NMN surfaces. Theoretical analysis further confirms that rapid H2O adsorption‐dissociation kinetics and H adsorption‐conversion kinetics on the Ni3Mo3N/NiOOH and Ni3Mo3N/MoOx surfaces result in boosted HER capability. This work depicts a significant potential for designing stable and efficient hydrogen production electrocatalysts for both alkaline water and seawater electrolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]