Abstract Background: Acute respiratory infections (ARI) remain a leading cause of morbidity, mortality, and economic loss globally. Until recently, human coronaviruses (HCoVs) have been mainly associated with mild upper respiratory tract infections. The 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) since 2012, illustrate the potential of coronaviruses to cause severe disease. Thus, it was necess...
ABSTRACT Introduction: Cryptococcal meningitis (CM) is the leading form of meningitis in HIV/AIDS patients and causes significant morbidity and mortality, even in the advent of accessibility of antiretroviral therapy. Globally, the burden of CM is estimated to be at 9.6 million cases and results in about 6.2 million deaths within three months of infection. General aim: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of Cryptococcal meningitis in hospitalized HIV-infected patients at the ...
ABSTRACT Polyurethane is a non-easily degradable synthetic polymer used as packaging material. Its presence and durability in the environment pose global disposal and degradation problem. Polyurethane releases toxic substances with carcinogenic or mutagenic potential during burning in dumpsites. An alternative to burning of waste materials is the use of microorganisms to degrade them. However, little is known about microbial degradation of polyurethane. Therefore, microbial degradation of po...
ABSTRACT Background: Malaria predisposes children in areas where malaria is endemic to concurrent bacteraemia. In the tropics, co-infections of both diseases are prevalent and are the leading causes of paediatric hospital admissions, morbidity and mortality. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of coinfection of malaria and bacterial bloodstream infections among 232 children under 13 years who reported to three healthcare facilities in Accra and Dodowa ...
Abstract Background: Mycobacterium africanum (MAF) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis sensu strico (MTBss) are two members of a closely related bacterial species of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) that causes tuberculosis (TB) in humans. However MAF is known to cause up to 50% of human pulmonary TB in West Africa only. MAF has been subdivided into MAF West African 1 (MAF1) (Lineage 5) and MAF West African 2 (MAF2) (Lineage 6), as two distinct phylogenetical lineages within MTBC. Subsequ...
ABSTRACT Background Rotavirus is associated with severe infantile diarrhoea requiring hospitalization. In order to control severe disease caused by rotavirus infection, vaccination is considered an essential strategy. Currently, two rotavirus vaccines (Rotarix™ and RotaTeq™) have been included in the Expanded Program on Immunization of most African countries to help reduce the high disease indections. Ghana has over the past 20 years been involved in the surveillance of rotavirus diseases...
ABSTRACT Listeriosis has emerged as a disease of public health importance because of its clinical severity, high fatality and challenges to its control including resistance to antibiotics. Outbreaks reported in developing countries including Nigeria were associated with consumption of meat and meat products. However, previous work on Listeria in Nigeria focused on environmental samples. Hence, the need to ascertain the presence of Listeria in meat and their response to antimicrobial agents. ...
ABSTRACT The antimicrobial properties of plants have shown promise for development of new drugs which might aid to overcome the increasing challenge of resistance and also the toxicity of the currently available antibiotics. Hence, the aim of the study was to investigate the antibacterial activities of Sida acuta, Anthocleista nobilis, and Zanthozylum leprieurii on clinical isolates of Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sanguis and two reference strains: Streptococcus mutans (ATCC 700610)...
Version:0.9 StartHTML:0000000105 EndHTML:0000004603 StartFragment:0000000141 EndFragment:0000004563 The microbial and chemical compositions of some indigenous foods of Southeastern Nigeria (Imo and Anambra States) were investigated. The total aerobic plate count (TAPC) for Ogiri ranged from 1.2 x 1010 to 2.4 x1011 cfu/g, the coliform count ranged from 2.1 x101 to 9.8 x102 cfu/g, and fungal count ranged from 1.0x108 to 3.3x1011 cfu/g. Aniga had a mean TAPC of 1.4x1011 cfu/g, coliform count...
ABSTRACT Background: Entamoeba histolytica causes amoebiasis in humans which is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children in developing countries like Ghana where there are problems with sanitation. Studies conducted in Ghana have not placed much emphasis on the prevalence of this infection in both symptomatic and asymptomatic children in Accra. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Entamoeba histolytica among children in Accra, and to identify some risk fa...
ABSTRACT Several hypotheses have been made about the possible mode of transmission of Mycobacterium ulcerans (M. ulcerans) and one of these is the role of insects as possible vectors. Although studies have been conducted extensively on aquatic insects and mosquitoes, limited work has been done on the prevalence of M. ulcerans in other insects. This study investigated the potential role of nocturnal biting insects as vectors of M. ulcerans. Nocturnal insects were sampled from Buruli Ulcer ende...
ABSTRACT Background: Bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) is an important public health problem which affects the health and social wellbeing of mainly elderly men. Bladder outlet obstruction is a major risk factor for the development of bacteriuria and recurrent urinary tract infections. These infections are usually associated with multi-drug resistant uropathogens leading to significant morbidity and mortality. Successful empirical management of these infections is dependent on knowledge of ant...
ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Annual global estimates show that 274,000 out of 490,000 women, newly diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer caused by oncogenic types of human papillomavirus (HPV), die. High risk HPV genotypes (hrHPV) cause the cancers whilst the low risk genotypes cause benign lesions (warts). HIV infection increases the prevalence and the persistence of hrHPV infection and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected women are eight times more likely of developing invasive cervical ca...
ABSTRACT Background Antiretroviral therapy (ART) and drug resistance studies have focused almost exclusively on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Thus there is limited information on patients infected with HIV type 2 (HIV-2). In Ghana, the HIV epidemic is characterized by the domination of HIV-1 with the co-circulation of HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-2 is known to be naturally resistant to some antiretroviral drugs including non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) and pr...
ABSTRACT Lactose intolerance (a condition in which man elucidates an immune reaction towards the presence of lactose due to inability to produce enzyme lactase) is a major nutritional deficiency among some adult consumers of milk and other dairy products worldwide. β–galactosidase hydrolysis of milk is one of the promising enzymatic applications in dairy industries for reducing lactose intolerance of milk products. However, plant and animal sources cannot meet the high demand of the enzym...