Prevalence, intensity and complications of Microsporidium spores amongst HIV-positive hospital patients in Ilorin, Nigeria.

Background: Microsporidiasis, which is of great concern for immunocompromised patients, is poorly studied in developing countries.

Objectives: A study was carried out amongst HIV-positive hospital patients and HIV-negative hospital controls in Ilorin, Nigeria, between January 2009 and July 2010 to determine the prevalence and intensity of spores and the complications associated with their presence.

Method: Stool samples from 750 HIV-positive patients and 375 HIV-negative patients were studied using the Chromotrope-2R staining technique.

Nigeria's triumph: dracunculiasis eradicated.

This report describes how Nigeria, a country that at one time had the highest number of cases of dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) in the world, reduced the number of cases from more than 653,000 in 1988 to zero in 2009, despite numerous challenges. Village-based volunteers formed the foundation of the program, which used health education, cloth filters, vector control, advocacy for safe water, voluntary isolation of patients, and monitored program interventions and cases reported monthly. Other factors in the program's success were strong governmental support, advocacy by a former head of state of Nigeria, technical and financial assistance by The Carter Center, the U.

Validity of leopard skin manifestation in community diagnosis of human onchocerciasis infection.

The validity and reliability of onchocercal leopard skin (LS) when used as a screening criteria in community diagnosis of human onchocerciasis is reported. Between March and May, 1991, 1,302 persons were skin snipped and examined for LS from all households in Mballa, Isuochi in Isuikwuato L.G.

Mobilization strategy for guinea worm eradication in Nigeria.

The transformation of dracunculiasis from an obscure and neglected rural disease to the highly visible target of a national eradication campaign in Nigeria is described in this report. This process progressed through four overlapping stages: documentation of the extent and nature of the disease as a national problem, demonstration in Nigeria that dracunculiasis could be effectively prevented by targeted provision and use of protected rural water supplies, mobilization for community participation in, and political support of, the eradication effort, and implementation of interventions nationwide. The conduct of the first national village-by-village search for cases and documentation of the adverse socioeconomic impact of the disease (e.

Schistosoma haematobium: a neglected common parasitic disease of childhood in Nigeria. Incidence and intensity of infection.

A prospective and cross-sectional study was carried out in various communities in Kwara State, Nigeria, to access the status and implications of urinary schistosomiasis among schoolchildren. Of 425 pupils examined in nine communities, 193 (45.4%) were infected.