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Background: There has been an increase in the incidence of disasters in many parts of the world. Similarly, Nigeria has witnessed a recent increase of man-made disaster events such as plane crash, fire incidents, flood, and building collapse, including bomb blast orchestrated by terrorists that often create emergency situations. Therefore, the aim of the study was to evaluate family emergency plan and preparedness among medical practitioners in Zaria., Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study (May-July, 2013) of medical practitioners in Zaria, Nigeria. The structured questionnaire sought the socio-demographic features of the respondents, the availability of emergency gate(s) in the house, education of safety measures within and outside the house, well-known located shut-off devices for gases, electricity, and water in the house, and written document/policy in the event of disaster. Also, planned orientations/drills/sensitizations, whether there is contact information of family members and supporting agencies., Results: Majority of the respondents were male 56 (80.0 percent) and fall within the age group of 46-50 years (20.0 percent). Only 8.6 percent admitted having an unwritten policy on emergency management in their houses. Similarly, only 8.6 percent do create time to teach their family members on emergency management. Only 27 (38.6 percent) had emergency supplies kits and among this group, water appears to be the most essential component that the respondents had paid attention to, leaving out special items. The communication plans of respondents to likely supportive services/agencies during disaster showed that majority had contact address or have affirmative plans for hospital and ambulance services than for radio and television stations., Conclusion: Family emergency plans and preparedness among medical practitioners in Zaria are extremely low. There is a gap between knowledge of what need to be done to enhance preparedness and internalizing preparedness recommendations in the study area.

Background: There has been an increase in the incidence of disasters in many parts of the world. Similarly, Nigeria has witnessed a recent increase of man-made disaster events such as plane crash, fire incidents, flood, and building collapse, including bomb blast orchestrated by terrorists that often create emergency situations. Therefore, the aim of the study was to evaluate family emergency plan and preparedness among medical practitioners in Zaria., Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study (May-July, 2013) of medical practitioners in Zaria, Nigeria. The structured questionnaire sought the socio-demographic features of the respondents, the availability of emergency gate(s) in the house, education of safety measures within and outside the house, well-known located shut-off devices for gases, electricity, and water in the house, and written document/policy in the event of disaster. Also, planned orientations/drills/sensitizations, whether there is contact information of family members and supporting agencies., Results: Majority of the respondents were male 56 (80.0 percent) and fall within the age group of 46-50 years (20.0 percent). Only 8.6 percent admitted having an unwritten policy on emergency management in their houses. Similarly, only 8.6 percent do create time to teach their family members on emergency management. Only 27 (38.6 percent) had emergency supplies kits and among this group, water appears to be the most essential component that the respondents had paid attention to, leaving out special items. The communication plans of respondents to likely supportive services/agencies during disaster showed that majority had contact address or have affirmative plans for hospital and ambulance services than for radio and television stations., Conclusion: Family emergency plans and preparedness among medical practitioners in Zaria are extremely low. There is a gap between knowledge of what need to be done to enhance preparedness and internalizing preparedness recommendations in the study area.

Background: The risk of exposure of either the patient or the surgeon to communicable disease when the surgical glove is perforated is important. Both patients and the surgical team need to be protected from this risk. Therefore, we intended to determine the efficacy of double gloving in our center., Methods: This was a prospective cohort study, involving (randomly selected) surgeons, who wore single or double latex surgical gloves during procedures. Gloves were collected and evaluated for perforations (using air insufflation and water leak methods)., Results: A total of 1,536 gloves were collected (512 single gloves and 1,024 double gloves), with 78 of 512 gloves perforated, giving a rate of 15.2%. Perforation rate was 15.2% in single gloves, 14.4% in double gloves, 15.5% in emergency operations, and 14.3% in elective surgery. It was highest (30.8%) among registrars in training, particularly when doing any deep (16.0%) surgery. Glove perforation rate was highest (17.4%) among general surgery procedures as opposed to pediatric surgery (14.6%), urology (13.9%), neurosurgery (11.7%), and plastic surgery (10.6%), with (42.1%) index finger injury. In unused (control group) gloves, the rate of perforation was (0.8%). There was a substantial difference in the overall perforation rate between single and double glove sets (15.2% versus 14.4%) (X(2) = 1748, p < 0.0001). However, among the double set, total gloves [outer and inner set] analysis revealed a perforation rate of 27.5% (141 of 512). Of this set, the number of inner gloves that perforated as a result of a through and through puncture from outer to the inner gloves gave a rate of 1.17% (six of 512). Thus, the protection offered by double gloves was 98.83% (X(2) = 280.9, p < 0.0001) even if the outer gloves were perforated., Conclusion: The use of double gloves has more than 90% protection to patient and the surgeon. Therefore, wearing double gloves should be encouraged in surgery.