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Background: Monkey pox (Mpox) is a zoonotic viral illness that is endemic to Africa. In contrast to earlier years, the current Mpox outbreak has had an unusually rapid worldwide spread in terms of the number of cases, and most of these cases were among Men who have Sex with Men (MSM). The study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, practice of infection prevention, and stigma of Mpox disease among members of the MSM community. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional design. A self-administered questionnaire was given to 498 respondents. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 30 years; twenty-three (4.6%) of the total respondents identified themselves as female gender. Urban dwellers were 344 (69.1%). Respondents had a good knowledge of both Mpox disease and transmission; an average knowledge of Mpox symptoms; and an average attitude towards prevention and the practice of prevention of Mpox. Age was found to be significantly associated with knowledge of transmission (p-value). Mpox infection was evaluated as a low-risk event by most responses, but the existence of both community stigma and self-stigma if infected were rated as high. Conclusion: The knowledge of Mpox disease and its transmission was good, while the attitude and practice of infection prevention was average. However, the existence of community and self-stigmatization was high; which perhaps may result in the possibility of an iceberg phenomenon of Mpox disease in the MSM community. Community sensitization, advocacy, and key population-friendly services are recommended for the MSM community to improve their general access to healthcare and reduce stigmatisation.

Introduction:the knowledge of epidemiologic and clinical variables in patients with SARS- CoV-2 infection provides evidence and lessons that are useful for the pandemic response, with consideration of National and sub-National variations. The objective of this study was to characterize and describe the clinical and epidemiologic features of all the hospitalised patients with COVID-19 in Rivers State Nigeria, from March to August 2020. Methods:a prospective descriptive multi-center study of patients with positive SARS-CoV-2 RT PCR, who were hospitalised for treatment and self-isolation in four treatment centers in Rivers state, Nigeria. Results:the mean age of all the patients was 39.21 ± 12.31 years, with a range of 2 to 77 years. The majority of patients were in the 31 to 40-year (33.0%), 41 to 50-year (23.1%) and 18-to 30-year (22.0%) age groups. The patient population included 474 (73.4%) males and 172 (26.6%) females, with 93 (14.4%) healthcare workers. A history of contact and travel was established in 38.5% and at least one comorbid disease condition was present in 32.8% of patients. Patients with severe disease were 61 (9.45%), while the overall case fatality rate was 2%. The leading comorbid disease conditions were Hypertension in 23.8% and diabetes in 7.7% of patients. Fever (26.0%), dry Cough (17.6%), dyspnoea (12.7%), anosmia (12.7%) and headache (9.9%) were the most common symptoms. The presence of comorbidity and increasing age predicted death from COVID-19. Conclusion:the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of this cohort of hospitalised patients show significant similarities with existing trends from previously reported studies, with contextual peculiarities.

Drug resistant tuberculosis studies in Rivers State, an oil-rich area in Nigeria. The National Tuberculosis, Leprosy and BuruliUlcer program at the state level started around 2009 and drug-resistant tuberculosis started receiving data from the localgovernment areas of the state. The data generated for this research is from the state ministry of health in the NTLB. This study iscarried out to assess the trend of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the state, a total of 250 patients were used for this research withmale 147 (58.8%) and female 103 (41.2%). The retreatment cases were 190(76%) while primarily diagnosed or new cases were60(24%). SPSS version 24 was used to analyze the data with t-test and linear regression used as statistical tools. From a linearregression test, the trend of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the state was increasing until 2016 where it has its highest occurrenceand is gradually declining. A test of significance showed that females have a better outcome, less in HIV co-infection compared tomales of the same age groups of 15-44 that had the highest number. Retreatment cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis are notfavorable when compared to the new cases, the incidence of death, loss to follow up are more among the males in retreatment ofdrug-resistant tuberculosis. All these findings may be associated with some level of factors this research tried to do but waslimited to a certain stage.