Health professionals' knowledge about relative prevalence of hospital-acquired infections in Delta State of Nigeria

Secondary metabolites of endophytic fungi from Newbouldia laevis and Cassia tora leaves: prospecting for new antimicrobial agents

AIM

This study tries to prospect for new antimicrobial agents using some Nigerian plants Background: Antimicrobial compounds from fungi endophytes have shown great promise in mitigating the threats of resistant pathogens.

OBJECTIVE

The study evaluated the in vitro antimicrobial property of secondary metabolites of endophytic fungi isolated from Newbouldia laevis and Cassia tora leaves.

METHODS

Ten endophytic fungi were isolated from the two plants' leaves and later fermented on local rice for 21 days. Thereafter, their secondary metabolites were extracted using ethyl acetate. The antibacterial activity of the extracts on the test organisms were determined using agar diffusion and agar dilution methods, while the bioactive constituents were identified using High performance liquid chromatography coupled to diode array detector.

RESULTS

Nine of the crude extracts (NL1, NL3, NL6, NL10, NL12, CT2, CT7, CT9 and CT10) of the fungi isolates inhibited at least one of the microorganisms studied with maximum and minimum Inhibition-Zone-Diameter of 14 mm and 2 mm respectively while CT1 did not inhibit any of the tested microorganisms at tested concentrations. The extracts exhibited good antifungal activity, inhibiting the growth of both C. albicans and Trichophyton tested with an InhibitionZone-Diameter ranging between 4-8 mm and 7-14 mm respectively. The endophytic fungi extracts- CT2 and NL1- exhibited the best antimicrobial activity, inhibiting most of the tested microorganisms. HPLC-DAD analysis of the endophytic fungal extracts identified some classes of compounds such as catechin derivatives, benzoic acid derivatives and apigenin, which were previously reported to have antimicrobial potentials.

CONCLUSION

Newbouldia laevis and Cassia tora leaves house endophytic fungi capable of yielding secondary metabolites with potential as anti-infective agents.

Pharmaceutical Quality of Selected Metronidazole and Ciprofloxacin Infusions Marketed in South Eastern Nigeria

Background

Pharmaceutical products need to be of good quality and it is even more critical when it comes to life saving medicaments like infusions.

Objective

This research surveyed the quality fitness of some ciprofloxacin and metronidazole infusion samples marketed in South-eastern of Nigeria.

Methods

Using Official Compendial methods, microbiological quality, active pharmaceutical ingredients quantitation, pH and particle count tests were evaluated on eighty infusion bottles (from eight pharmaceutical companies) of each of the two drugs.

Results

Out of the sixteen brands tested, 2 metronidazole brands and 1 ciprofloxacin brand (representing 18.75% of the total 16 brands/makes) were contaminated while the remaining 13 brands (81.25%) were found sterile. The active pharmaceutical ingredients quantitative assay showed that all the brands of ciprofloxacin infusion were between the 95% and 105% limit of label claim while one metronidazole brand has <95–110% limit label claim. Six brands each of the two drugs evaluated fall below the acceptable pH range [ciprofloxacin (3.5–4.6) and metronidazole (4.8–5.2)], while the other two brands of both drugs passed the test. In the antibacterial study, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli were susceptible to the ciprofloxacin (5 µg). However, Salmonella typhi recorded inhibition zone diameters within resistant and intermediate range. Peptostrepococcus spp was susceptible (at minimum inhibitory concentrations of 100 µg/mL) to all the brands of metronidazole, while none of the brands were effective on Lactobacillus spp. All the brands passed the test for particulate contamination. The particles size range was <10µm.

Conclusion

About eighty-one percent (81.25%) of the infusions have acceptable good microbiological quality. However, 18.75% that failed the tests is a concern knowing that these are lifesaving products.

Multidrug-resistant bacterial isolates from patients suspected of nosocomial infections at the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia

Objectives

As the hospital environment favors the circulation of drug resistant bacteria, continuous surveillance of antibiotic resistant patterns is an important approach for a better patient management. This study is therefore, aimed to assess multidrug resistant bacterial isolates from patients suspected of nosocomial infections at the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Gondar, Ethiopia.

Results

Of the 260 patients, 173 (66.5%) of them were culture positive. Among culture positive patients a total of 216 bacterial isolates were recovered, of which the most common species were S. aureus 77 (35.6%), followed by E. coli 33 (15.3%) and Klebsiella spp 29 (13.4%). Of the S. aureus isolates, 67.5% were cefoxitin (methicillin) resistant. Citrobacter spp (100%), Klebsiella spp (79.3%) and E. coli (75.3%) were the leading MDR Gram-negative isolates. The overall MDR resistant rate was 152 (70.4%).

Effectiveness of training program on attitude and practice of infection control measures among nurses in two teaching hospitals in Ogun State, Nigeria

BACKGROUND

Infection control has become a major concern in the health-care system and health-care workers, particularly nurses are at high risk of infection. This study, therefore, examined the effect of a training program on attitude and practice of infection control among nurses in two tertiary hospitals in Ogun State, Nigeria.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study adopted a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. The sample consisted of 87 participants. The experimental group consisted of 42 registered nurses from Babcock University Teaching Hospital, Ogun state, Nigeria, while the control group consisted of 45 registered nurses from Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria. The instrument for data collection was attitude toward components of infection control questionnaire (r = 72) and practice of infection control questionnaire (r = 76). Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21.0 (SPSS Inc. Chicago IL, USA).

RESULTS

Findings showed that the mean age in the experimental group was 34.92 ± 8.9 while the control group was 47.43 ± 6.6. The average years of experience for the experimental group were 10.42 ± 9.9 while that of the control group were 21.89 ± 8.7. Responses on attitude showed that 30 participants (69%) had positive attitude in the experimental group compared to 21 participants (46.7%) in the control group. The mean difference was 4.02. Significant difference was observed between mean attitude score of participants in the experimental group and control group (P = 0.03), between mean practice score (P = 0.001), and between self-reported and observed practices (P = 0.000).

CONCLUSION

The training was effective in improving attitude and practice of infection control. Adequate provision of structured training programs on infection control measures is recommended.

Infection prevention and control in health facilities in post-Ebola Liberia: don't forget the private sector!

Setting: Recognising the importance of infection prevention and control (IPC), a minimum standards tool (MST) was developed in Liberia to guide the safe (re-) opening and provision of care in health facilities. Objectives: To analyse the implementation of specific IPC measures after the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak between June 2015 and May 2016, and to compare the relative improvements in IPC between the public and private sectors. Design: A retrospective comparative cohort study. Results: We evaluated 723 (94%) of the 769 health facilities in Liberia. Of these, 437 (60%) were public and 286 (40%) were private. There was an overall improvement in the MST scores from a median of 13 to 14 out of a maximum possible score of 16. While improvements were observed in all aspects of IPC in both public and private health facilities, IPC implementation was systematically higher in public facilities. Conclusions: We demonstrate the feasibility of monitoring IPC implementation using the MST checklist in post-Ebola Liberia. Our study shows that improvements were made in key aspects of IPC after 1 year of evaluations and tailored recommendations. We also highlight the need to increase the focus on the private sector to achieve further improvements in IPC.