Effect of First Aid Education on First Aid Knowledge and Skills of Commercial Drivers in South West Nigeria.

Background: Prompt prehospital care is essential for improving outcomes of road crash victims; however, this service is sub-optimal in developing countries because Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are not readily available. Training of lay responders in first aid has been suggested as a means of filling this gap in settings with inadequate EMS. This study was conducted to determine the effect of first aid training on the first aid knowledge and skills of commercial drivers.

An assessment of accuracy of mothers' presumptive diagnosis of fever at home in southwest Nigeria: evidence for switch to parasite-based diagnostic test.

Objective: Home management of malaria (HMM) strategy was based on presumptive diagnosis of malaria and use of correct dose of chloroquine. However, the development of chloroquine resistant parasites in most endemic areas necessitated the recommendation of artemisinin combination therapy (ACT); and this has been demonstrated to be effective in HMM. However, the recommendation that ACT should be dispensed only to laboratory confirmed cases underscores the need to review the accuracy of mothers' presumptive diagnosis and provide evidence for a switch to parasite based diagnostic test.

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.

The development of a treatment guideline for childhood malaria in rural Southwest Nigeria using participatory approach.

Objective: To describe the development of a treatment guideline for the effective case management of malaria in children at the home level.

Methods: Thirty-three mothers selected from 11 communities in a rural health district, community members and the research team developed a guideline for treatment of malaria at home by caregivers using a participatory approach. This was done in phases using modified focus group discussion sessions.

Using "mother trainers" for malaria control: the Nigerian experience.

Studies of care seeking in Nigeria show that a tremendous amount of treatment for malaria takes place at home and, in most instances, such treatments are incorrect. This deficiency is attributed to caregivers' poor knowledge of treatment. This study was designed to empower households to treat malaria correctly in partnership with community members.

Assessment of a treatment guideline to improve home management of malaria in children in rural south-west Nigeria.

Background: Many Nigerian children with malaria are treated at home. Treatments are mostly incorrect, due to caregivers' poor knowledge of appropriate and correct dose of drugs. A comparative study was carried out in two rural health districts in southwest Nigeria to determine the effectiveness of a guideline targeted at caregivers, in the treatment of febrile children using chloroquine.

Rapid assessment method for prevalence and intensity of Loa loa infection.

Objective: To assess the validity of observations on eye worm and Calabar swellings for the rapid assessment of the prevalence and intensity of loiasis at the community level.

Method: A total of 12895 individuals over the age of 15 years living in 102 communities in Cameroon and Nigeria took part in the study. A standardized questionnaire was administered to participants from whom finger-prick blood samples were collected and examined for Loa loa microfilariae.