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Objective: To determine the rate of mother to child transmission of HIV following the introduction of PMTCT program in Abuja. Method: A prospective study of 355 seropositive mothers and their newborns was conducted at the National Hospital Abuja and Asokoro District Hospital Abuja over a 12 months’ period following ethical approval. Using DNA PCR the HIV status of all the exposed babies delivered over the period was determined by taking their peripheral blood at 6 weeks of age. This was repeated 6 weeks post cessation of breast feeding for breastfed babies.. Furthermore, the babies were categorized based on the extent of participation of their mothers in the PMTCT programme and the transmission rates obtained were compared. Result: An overall HIV vertical transmission rate of 6.4% (23/359) was found. A lower rate of 1.6%(5/311) was obtained for those whose mothers fully accessed PMTCT programme as opposed to 15.0% (3/20) for those whose mothers had incomplete participation and 53.6%(15/28) for those whose mothers did not participate. Conclusion: Full participation in PMTCT programme significantly reduced mother to child transmission of HIV.

[Display omitted] • Oryzaephilus surinamensis mostly disseminate in grains, causing losses in crops. • Date crops in the storage are the main target of many insects. • The use of ozone in pest control is considered a safe alternative to pesticides. • Pest control with ozone, provides a requirement for food safety and security. • Mutational effects on insect are easily monitored by SCoT markers. Oryzaephilus surinamensis, a common grain product pest around the world, particularly causing great damage and losses to the date crops available in the storage. It has been traditionally resisted by using organic pesticides despite suspicions of their harmful effects on dates. This study aimed at the evaluation of the usage of ozone gas as an effective pesticide and also focuses on the safety alternatives provided by the respective method as compared to the usage of phosphine as a pesticide. While studying the ozone effects, the O. surinamensis was exposed to the gas for a variety of time scales (2, 4 and 6 h), distinctly for every life stages of the insect such as egg, larva and adults, infested the Phoenix dactylifera L date palm species present in the Siwa oasis. The obtained results showed that the adult insects had high resistance to ozone gas, while the larvae and egg stages were less resistant. The reduction rate of vital insect was 100% in all stages. Start codon analysis of DNA also showed that there are some SCoT primers can be identified and differentiated between the different treatments and control. On the other hand, the percentage of polymorphisms in insects was 50% while in date kernels 25% by six SCoT primers used. This study highlighted higher efficacy and safety regarding the usage of ozone gas in effectively controlling the manifestation of O. Surinamensis and thereby reducing the loss of stored date crops as compared to the phosphine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We identified socio-demographic, health system and psycho-social barriers to Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) of HIV in the Upper West Region of Ghana., Design: An unmatched case control study of 96 cases and 96 controls was conducted in the ART centers in Lawra district and Wa Municipality between December 2014 and April 2015., Setting: A public health facility., Participants: We defined a case as an HIV positive mother with an exposed infant who received EID service between January 2011 and December 2014. A control was defined as HIV Positive Mother with an exposed infant who did not receive EID services between January 2011 and December 2014., Main Outcome: EID by dry blood spot Deoxyribonucleic acid Polymerase chain reaction., Results: A total of 192 mother-infant pairs were assessed. The mean age of infants at testing for cases was 17.3±14.9 weeks. Mother-to-child-transmission-rate was 2.3%. Factors associated with EID testing included: mother being formally employed (cOR=2.0: 95%CI:1.1-3.8), maternal formal education (cOR=2.0, 95%CI: 1.1-3.6) and maternal independent source of income (cOR 2.2, 95%CI 1.2-4.1). After adjusting for confounders, maternal independent income source was associated with EID testing (aOR 2.2, 95%CI 1.2-4.1). Median turn-around time of EID result was 11 weeks (IQR 4-27 weeks)., Conclusion: Women need to be empowered to gain an independent source of income. This can help maximize the benefits of e-MTCT and increase EID in the Upper West Region of Ghana., Funding: This work was funded by the authors., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: None declared, (Copyright © The Author(s).)