Background: Streptococcus pneumonia is responsible for 18% of infant deaths in Ghana. With co-financing from Gavi in 2012, Ghana introduced the PCV13 into the childhood immunization programme to reduce the burden of Streptococcus pneumonia. However, Ghana will graduate to the Gavi fully self-financing phase in 2026, when the nation assumes full responsibility of paying for the PCV13.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPublic Health Pract (Oxf)
November 2021
Africa has the second-highest number of displaced persons in the world. This number increases continuously due to the ongoing crisis in different countries in sub-Saharan Africa. African refugees are not only prone to COVID-19 but they are also capable of transmitting it across country borders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Synthetic prednisolone (PRED) is a widely used over-the-counter glucocorticoid. Glucocorticoids have inhibitory effects on the immune system and are often used as immunosuppressive agents. Suppressed immunity may impact fertility via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe worldwide increase in infections caused by extended-spectrum beta-lactamase- (ESBL) and AmpC-producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL-E) is a concern. Surveillance is extensive in Europe, North America, and Asia. Yet, there is no summarizing surveillance in Africa.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe acceptability of lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART) among HIV-positive women in high-burden Nigeria, is not well-known. We explored readiness of users and providers of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services to accept lifelong ART -before Option B plus was implemented in Nigeria. We conducted 142 key informant interviews among 100 PMTCT users (25 pregnant-newly-diagnosed, 26 pregnant-in-care, 28 lost-to-follow-up (LTFU) and 21 postpartum women living with HIV) and 42 PMTCT providers in rural North-Central Nigeria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Recent evidences suggest that cerebellar degeneration may be associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, previous reports were mainly observational, lacking substantial characterization of cellular and molecular cerebellar features during AD progression.
Purpose: This study is aimed at characterizing the cerebellum in rat models of AD and assessing the corresponding neuroprotective mechanisms of biflavonoid complex (GBc).
Exploring the links between neural pathobiology and behavioural deficits in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and investigating substances with known therapeutic advantages over subcellular mechanisms underlying these dysfunctions could advance the development of potent therapeutic molecules for AD treatment. Here we investigated the efficacy of ascorbic acid (AA) in reversing aluminium chloride (AlCl)-induced behavioural deficits and neurotoxic cascades within prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus of rats. A group of rats administered oral AlCl (100mg/kg) daily for 15days showed degenerative changes characterised by significant weight loss, reduced exploratory/working memory, frontal-dependent motor deficits, cognitive decline, memory dysfunction and anxiety during behavioural assessments compared to control.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cannabis is a widely used illicit drug with various threats of personality syndrome, and Nigella sativa has been widely implicated as having therapeutic efficacy in many neurological diseases. The present study investigates the ameliorative efficacy of Nigella sativa oil (NSO) on cannabis-induced moto-cognitive defects.
Methods: Scopolamine (1 mg/kg i.