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In the search for causes and cures of cancer diseases, many mathematical models developed have resulted in systems of nonlinear stiff ordinary differential equations. With these models, many numerical estimates of biological knowledge of the parameters have been obtained, a number of phenomena interpreted, and predictions were made in order to gain further knowledge of cancer development and possible treatment. In this study, numerical simulations of the models were performed using continuous block implicit hybrid methods and the results obtained support the theoretical and clinical findings. We analyzed the interactions among the various tumor cell populations and present the results graphically. From the graphical representation of results, one can clearly see the effects of all the tumor cell populations involved in the competition, as well as the effects of some treatments by the applications of some therapeutic agents which have been heavily used in the clinical treatments of breast cancer. The treatments in the past were mostly conventional chemotherapies, which were used either singly (alone) or in combination with each other or other therapies, and all played vital roles, except for the side effects that these therapies incur in normal tissues and organs. Thus, from recent research works, it is now clear that in many cases they do not represent a complete cure. Therefore, the need to address not only the preventative measures of breast cancer, but also more successful treatment, is clear, and can be successfully achieved to increase the survival rate of breast cancer patients.

BACKGROUND Self-medication during pregnancy is common. Some drugs could cause severe adverse effects that are sometimes life-threatening and harm pregnant mothers and fetuses. We evaluated the prevalence of self-medication and associated factors among pregnant women receiving care in a specialist hospital in Bauchi, North-eastern Nigeria. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a cross-sectional study of 400 pregnant women recruited using systematic random sampling. Data were collected between October and December 2020. A structured questionnaire was employed to investigate sociodemographic characteristics, the magnitude of self-medication in pregnancy, the reasons for this practice, common drugs used, and factors associated with the practice among antenatal care attendees of the hospital. The collected data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 26, where chi-square was utilized to determine the relationship between variables. RESULTS Overall, 40% of pregnant women practised self-medication during pregnancy. The common reasons for self-medication were lower cost, availability/easy access, and the thought that the illness was minor. The common drugs used were paracetamol and other analgesic drugs, antacids/anti-ulcer, anti-malaria, and Cough/Cold mixture. Age, occupation, gravidity, and the number of antenatal visits associated with self-medication. CONCLUSION There was a high prevalence of self-medication among the participants. Also, drugs for such practice were cheap, readily available, and accessible, whereas frequent antenatal care attendance discourages self-medication practice in pregnancy. Laws to guide the sale and distribution of drugs should be made while existing ones are enforced.

Bacterial contamination of intensive care units is of clinical concern because it is one of the major risk factors of ICU -acquired infections and centre point of multidrug resistant (MDR) pathogens. Periodic surveillance is an early warning signal to non-adherence of basic standard infection control procedures and emergence of MDR pathogens. This study evaluated the bacterial contamination, bacterial pathogens isolated and their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern in the ICU units. The units sampled were adult and neonatal intensive care units, accordingly to previously described methods and analyzed by standard microbiological methods. A total of 113 samples were collected, overall, 71(62.8%) yielded positive bacterial growth, 15(21.1%) detected by open-plate and 14(19.7%) by swabbing in adult intensive care unit and 20(28.2%) and 22(31.0%) in neonatal care unit. Bacillus spp,Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase negative staphylococci spp predominated in both units 24(33.8%), 19(26.8%), 14(19.7%), Other pathogens 19%, clinically relevant pathogens isolated were Eschericia coli (1%), Klebsiella pneumonia(4%) and Streptococcus pneumonia (3%) respectively. High indoor contamination was recorded in both units, 51.7% (n=15) in AICU and 47.6% (n=20) in NICU and inanimate items/equipments. Clinically relevant pathogens were recovered from routinely used equipment and critical sites. High resistance to commonly prescribed and administered agents, cotrimoxazole, amoxicillin and ampicillin was observed. Though the findings has provided a baseline information for furthered surveillance, but the high indoor contamination within both units signify increased traffic, ventilation system problem and inadequate cleaning procedures.