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Coronavirus (COVID-19) is an illness caused by a virus that can be transmitted by human contact. After the first infections in China at the end of 2019, COVID-19 has continued to spread across the world. No continent has been able to escape this virus. In Nigeria, the first case of COVID-19 was detected on 27th February 2020 in Lagos State; an Italian visitor on a business trip to Ewekoro cement plant, Ogun State, this did not lead to an immediate outbreak in the state, however, series of immediate interventions were put in place by the government of Ogun state and the Federal Republic of Nigeria in response to COVID-19.At the time of preparing this manuscript the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported a total infected cases of 25,133 people, with 9,402 recoveries and total death of 573 cases. In this article, the daily number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 were obtained from publicly available outbreak situation report of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Ogun State Ministry of Health a preliminary epidemiological analysis of COVID-19 outbreak in Ogun state between 27th February and 28th June, 2020 and a breakdown of the disease in the local governments of the state is provided. A total of 774 confirmed cases and 18 COVID-19 deaths were recorded in nineteen local government areas out of twenty local government areas in Ogun state, Nigeria. 342 (43.7%) of the infected cases seen were detected in the Ado Odo Ota local government area, and the Sagamu local government area with about 206 (26.3%) infected cases which are border towns to Lagos state the most infected state in Nigeria. 78.6% of the infected cases were in the middle age group, specifically the 25-34, 35-44 and 45-54 age categories. The number of men infected with COVID-19 in Ogun state is 3 times that of women infected implying that Men are more at risk for worse outcomes and death, irrespective of age, with COVID-19. This study thus provides an insight into the COVID-19 current situation in Ogun state and serve as a reminder to policymakers, health officers, disease control agencies and the general public, that although the number of confirmed cases may be relatively low in Ogun state, the risk is still very high and potentially, there could be many asymptomatic cases in the state, Ogun State

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Background: Cancer-related genes are under intense evolutionary pressure. We conjectured that gene size is an important determinant of amplification propensity for oncogenes and thus cancer susceptibility and therefore could be subject to natural selection. Patients and methods: Gene information, including size and genomic locations, of all protein-coding genes were downloaded from Ensembl (release 87). Quantification of gene amplification was based on Genomic Identification of Significant Targets in Cancer scores obtained from available The Cancer Genome Atlas studies. Results: Oncogenes are larger in size as compared with non-cancer genes (mean size: 92.1 kb versus 61.4 kb; P < 0.0001) in the human genome, which is contributed by both increased total exon size (mean size: 4.6 kb versus 3.4 kb; P < 0.0001) and higher intronic content (mean %: 84.8 versus 78.0; P < 0.01). Such non-random size distribution and intronic composition are conserved in mouse and Drosophila (all P < 0.0001). Stratification by gene age indicated that young oncogenes have been subject to a stronger evolutionary pressure for gene expansion than their non-cancer counterparts. Pan-cancer analysis demonstrated that larger oncogenes were amplified to a lesser extent. Tumor-suppressor genes also moved toward small oncogenes in the course of evolution. Conclusions: Oncogenes expand in size whereas tumor-suppressor genes move closer to small oncogenes in the course of evolution to withstand oncogenic somatic amplification. Our findings have shed new light on the previously unappreciated influence of gene size on oncogene amplification and elucidated how cancers have shaped our genome to its present configuration.

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OBJECTIVES: Previous studies had demonstrated that continuous and effective productivity of hospital staff are linked to job satisfaction and only those who are satisfied with their job can be maximally effective and productive. This cross-sectional descriptive survey was designed to determine the levels of job satisfaction among various groups of health care professionals working in a teaching hospital in Lagos, Nigeria. METHODS: Two hundred clinical and non-clinical hospital staff were invited to take part in the study. They completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Job Descriptive Index (JDI). RESULTS: The results indicated that majority clinical and non-clinical staff were satisfied with their jobs as regards the parameters of the JDI compared with those not satisfied with their jobs. CONCLUSION: The government and health policy makers should continue to pay attention to boost job morale and satisfaction of medical health workers to continue to make them to be satisfied with their job.

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Increasingly, many institutions and surgical groups are resorting to laboratory simulations when teaching surgical skills. The Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland partnered with the West African College of Surgeons and Johnson and Johnson Corporation to introduce basic surgical skills (BSS) training into West Africa. The local faculty at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, was able to use the opportunity of this partnership to establish a regular basic surgical skills training programme. The achievement in Enugu shows that, with a dedicated team of local faculties, giving the local medical trainers a short introduction to the practicalities of organizing and conducting BSS is enough to jump start the programme in resource-poor countries. The Enugu example is a model that should be emulated by centres in other resource-poor countries to make the course a regular feature of their surgical training.

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Nigeria, like other African countries, is short of personnel trained in mental healthcare. Efforts to tackle the problem have often focused on increasing the numbers of psychiatrists and nurses in the field. These efforts, over the past 20 years, have not appeared to have greatly improved service delivery at the grass roots. Most of the specialist centres where such highly trained personnel work are in urban areas and for a large part of the population access to them is limited by distance and cost.

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To evaluate the clinical utility of in vitro calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) crystallization kinetics measurements and to determine the effect of quantitative removal of urinary Tamm-Horsfall glycoprotein on such measurements, we examined 24-hour, room temperature urine collections of patients from our Stone Clinic and of normal subjects from our research laboratories at Ochsner Medical Institutions in New Orleans, LA, and compared their COM kinetic parameters in vitro before and after urine ultrafiltration (30 kd). Data from 53 calcium oxalate stone-forming patients (26% women; mean age, 47 years) who demonstrated radiographic or other evidence of forming at least one stone were compared with data from 22 healthy volunteers (25% women; mean age, 40 years). Hypercalciuria (> 7.5 mm/24 hr), hyperoxaluria (> 0.5 mm/24 hr), and hypocitraturia (< 2.0 mm/24 hr) were present in 38%, 26%, and 26% of the patient population, respectively. Urinary creatinine, urate, calcium, citrate, phosphate, oxalate, pH, volume, total immunoreactive-disaggregated Tamm-Horsfall glycoprotein, and the urine's effects on COM solubility, percent crystal growth inhibition, and crystal agglomeration inhibition [tm] were determined. Calcium oxalate monohydrate agglomeration inhibition, [tm], was reduced in stone-forming patients. It decreased with increasing stone frequency, making [tm] a useful tool for measuring the risk of stone recurrence. Urinary Tamm-Horsfall glycoprotein and citrate concentrations were linearly related to COM agglomeration inhibition. Their effects were synergistic. Tamm-Horsfall glycoprotein removal from urine reduced COM agglomeration inhibition dramatically. Alkali therapy increased urinary citrate concentration and increased [tm].(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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The fetal biparietal diameter (BPD) was measured on 1104 occasions in 552 Nigerian women during normal pregnancy, and the range of BPD values for each week of pregnancy between 12 and 40 weeks was determined. Growth of the BPD in our population showed an asymptotic curve like that of Europeans but our values were slightly higher. The mean weekly increase in the BPD between 13 and 30 weeks gestation was 4.9 mm/week, between 30 and 36 weeks, 3.3 mm/week and between 37 and 40 weeks, 1.7 mm/week. But there was no significant difference between the BPD measurements of Europeans and Nigerian fetuses except towards term.

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Using Commercial R.I.A. Kits, plasma prolactin levels have been assayed in 41 Nigerian women with secondary amenorrhoea and in 10 normal ovulating women. The prolactin levels were 34.5 +/- 28.9 ng/ml and 14 +/- 6.8 ng/ml respectively; these prolactin levels differed significantly (p less than 0.001). Fifteen amenorrhoeic women had prolactin levels exceeding 28 ng/ml while no normal women had such prolactin levels. The highest prolactin levels, greater than 100 ng/ml were in the two patients with pituitary tumours. The relative frequency of galactorrhoea in patients with secondary amenorrhoea was 19.5%. The results of this study are comparable with those obtained in Caucasians.

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