Awareness and Practices of Women of Reproductive Age regarding the Use of Chlorhexidine for Newborn Cord Care in a Selected Community in Jos South Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria

Background: Neonatal mortality remains a public health concern in sub-Saharan Africa especially in Nigeria and poor cord care is a major contributor to the high neonatal mortality. The objective of this study was to assess the awareness and practice of Chlorhexidine cord care by women of reproductive age in Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State. Methods: This was a community based descriptive cross sectional study carried out among women of childbearing age in Lwellem Community of Jos South Local Government Area. A structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information from respondents who were selected through total population sampling. Data was analyzed using Statistical package for the Social Sciences version 20.Results: Three hundred women with children aged less than 5 years were administered the questionnaire. Two hundred and ninety seven (99%) were of low socio-economic status, 71 (23.5%) were farmers, 75 (25%) were traders and 60 (20%) were not gainfully employed. One hundred and sixty seven (55.6%) mothers were uneducated, 286 (95.3%) attended antenatal care during their last pregnancy and 78 (26.0%) were aware of Chlorhexidine use for newborn cord care with 89 (29.6%) using it. One hundred and sixty eight (56.0%) women practiced cord care to hasten falling of the cord and 85 (28.3%) practiced it to prevent infection. Conclusion: There is low awareness and use of Chlorhexidine for cord care in newborns. Women of reproductive age in this community should be educated on the use of Chlorhexidine cord care for newborns to reduce neonatal morbidity and mortality resulting from cord sepsis due to poor cord care practices.</jats:p

Bewertung der Kenntnisse des Gesundheitspersonals über Affenpocken in Nigeria

Background: Monkeypox, a re-emerging zoonotic disease caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV), poses a public health challenge in Nigeria. To effectively combat this disease, it is essential to assess the knowledge of healthcare workers (HCWs) in Nigeria concerning monkeypox outbreak.Methods: A cross-sectional web-based survey with 609 healthcare workers in Nigeria was conducted using a structured questionnaire to assess their knowledge of monkeypox. Data were coded and analyzed with Microsoft Excel and Python in Anaconda Jupyter Notebook.Results: The majority of respondents (n=318, 52.2%) had good knowledge of MPXV but also had knowledge gaps regarding certain symptoms and disease similarities. Interestingly, respondents were completely unaware of the possibility of sexual transmission of the disease. However, they recognized the possible significant impact of monkeypox on the social and economic lifestyle of Nigerians (n=582, 95.6%, adjOR=21.181, 95% CI: 14.450-31.051). Respondents had mixed knowledge regarding the use of smallpox vaccines and antiviral agents for monkeypox prevention and treatment. Furthermore, a significant proportion (n=526, 86.4%, adjOR=0.159, 95% CI: 0.126-0.201) attributed the outbreak to bioterrorism. The logistic regression highlighted a strong influence of academic qualification, type of healthcare provider, years of experience, and geopolitical zone of practice, on monkeypox knowledge in Nigeria.Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of continuous education for healthcare professionals in Nigeria to improve monkeypox outbreak management. Despite their moderate performance, there are knowledge gaps in critical areas among HCWs, necessitating further research to explore reasons and influencing factors for knowledge levels.Hintergrund: Affenpocken, eine wiederaufgetretende Zoonose, die durch das Affenpockenvirus (MPXV) verursacht wird, stellt eine Herausforderung für die öffentliche Gesundheit in Nigeria dar. Um diese Krankheit wirksam zu bekämpfen, ist es wichtig, das Wissen der Beschäftigten im Gesundheitswesen in Nigeria über den Ausbruch der Affenpocken zu bewerten.Methode: Anhand eines strukturierten Fragebogens wurde eine webbasierte Querschnittserhebung bei 609 Beschäftigten des Gesundheitswesens in Nigeria durchgeführt, um ihr Wissen über Affenpocken zu ermitteln. Die Daten wurden mit Microsoft Excel und Python in Anaconda Jupyter Notebook kodiert und analysiert.Ergebnisse: Die Mehrheit der Befragten (n=318, 52,2%) verfügte über gute Kenntnisse über MPXV, hatte aber Wissenslücken in Bezug auf bestimmte Symptome und Ähnlichkeiten mit anderen Krankheiten. Interessanterweise waren sich die Befragten der Möglichkeit einer sexuellen Übertragung der Krankheit überhaupt nicht bewusst. Sie erkannten jedoch die möglichen erheblichen Auswirkungen der Affenpocken auf die soziale und wirtschaftliche Lebensweise der Nigerianer (n=582, 95,6%, adjOR=21.181, 95% CI: 14.450-31.051). Die Befragten hatten unterschiedliche Kenntnisse über die Verwendung von Pockenimpfstoffen und antiviralen Mitteln zur Vorbeugung und Behandlung von Affenpocken. Außerdem führte ein signifikanter Anteil (n=526, 86,4%, adjOR=0.159, 95% CI: 0.126-0.201) den Ausbruch auf Bioterrorismus zurück. Die logistische Regression zeigte einen starken Einfluss der akademischen Qualifikation, der Art des Gesundheitsdienstleisters, der Jahre an Erfahrung und der geopolitischen Zone, in der man praktiziert, auf das Wissen über Windpocken in Nigeria.Schlussfolgerung: Die Studie unterstreicht, wie wichtig eine kontinuierliche Fortbildung des Gesundheitspersonals in Nigeria ist, um den Umgang mit dem Ausbruch der Affenpocken zu verbessern. Trotz ihrer mäßigen Fortschritte gibt es bei den Beschäftigten des Gesundheitswesens Wissenslücken in kritischen Bereichen, was weitere Untersuchungen zur den Gründen und den Einflussfaktoren auf den Wissensstand erforderlich macht

Predictive ranking: a novel page ranking approach by estimating the web structure

Conference paperPageRank (PR) is one of the most popular ways to rank web pages. However, as the Web continues to grow in volume, it is becoming more and more difficult to crawl all the available pages. As a result, the page ranks computed by PR are only based on a subset of the whole Web. This produces inaccurate outcome because of the inherent incomplete information (dangling pages) that exist in the calculation. To overcome this incompleteness, we propose a new variant of the PageRank algorithm called, Predictive Ranking (PreR), in which different classes of dangling pages are analyzed individually so that the link structure can be predicted more accurately. We detail our proposed steps. Furthermore, experimental results show that this algorithm achieves encouraging results when compared with previous methods.Re-search Grants Councils of the HKSAR, China (CUHK4205/04E and CUHK4351/02E