Faruk Sarkinfada

Bayero University, Kano · Department of Medical Microbiology

Nosocomial infections or Health Care prolonged hospital stay and has been implicated in increase in socio-economic disturbance, long term disability, and increased mortality rate. There is paucity information on the burden of HCAIs because of poorly developed surveillance systems and inexistent control methods. We aimed to investigate the prevalenc...

Cord blood (collected from the cord and placenta at birth) is a very rich source of fetal haemoglobin, CD34+ haemopoietic stem cells, cytokines and platelets. Fetal haemoglobin, in cord blood erythrocytes, which has been used to treat severe anaemia has been reported to have an anti-malarial effect. Nigeria has a wide gap in the provision of safe b...

The Nigerian Government is scaling up the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets for malaria control, but the lack of surveillance data, especially in the Sudan/Sahel region of the country, may hinder targeting priority populations. Here, the vectorial role and insecticide resistance profile of a population of a major malaria vector Anopheles...

Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the most important opportunistic bacterial pathogens that cause serious health care associated complications in hospitalized patients. This leads to prolong hospital stay which increase cost to both healthcare provider and family of the patients. The study aimed at molecular characterisation of A. baumannii from pa...

Abstract Introduction Superbugs are pathogenic micro-organism and especially a bacterium that has developed resistance to the medications normally used against it. As the superbug family increases, the need for appropriate diagnostic, treatment, prevention and control strategies cannot be over emphasized. Therefore, this work determined the distrib...

Introduction: Superbugs are pathogenic micro-organism and especially a bacterium that has developed resistance to the medications normally used against it. As the superbug family increases, the need for appropriate diagnostic, treatment, prevention and control strategies cannot be over emphasized. Therefore, this work determined the distribution o...

Microscopic examination was used in the research to investigate the prevalence of malaria as well as clinical and parasitological response of Plasmodium falciparum to Artemether-Lumefantrine (AL), Dihydroartemisinin-Piperaquine (DP), Artemether-Injection (AI) and Artesunate monotherapy in 123 people from the urban, semi-urban and rural areas of Kan...

Several reports on the prevalence dengue virus antibodies among febrile subjects from different parts of Nigeria suggest that dengue fever is endemic in Nigeria. However, there are no in-country surveys or national reports on dengue disease burden or guidelines for detection, management, prevention and control of Dengue. A knowledge and policy gap...

Filarial worms are tissue-dwelling nematodes that can infest man. The adult filarial parasites, depending on the species, may live in lymphatics, blood vessels, serous membranes, skin, or connective tissues [1]. The adult Loa loa worm lives commonly in the connective tissues, eyelids, and the subconjunctiva, where it can be seen moving across the c...

Although immunization has been demonstrated to be the most cost effective public health intervention that reduces burden of infectious diseases for many years, childhood vaccine preventable diseases are still the major cause of morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria.-Mortality) due to poor health indicators such as Under fi...

Malaria and Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infections are co-endemic throughout much of the tropical and sub-Saharan Africa and both present major threat to public health. A study on the prevalence of HBV and Malaria co-infection was carried out on 200 patients presenting with fever at the General Outpatient Department (GOPD) of the Murtala Muhammed Speci...

Phusion blood direct Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Kit was used to detect P. falciparum adenosine triphosphatase-6 (PfATPase-6) and P. falciparum translationally controlled tumor suppressor protein (PfTCTP) genes of the malaria parasite for artemisinins in 20 treated patients with Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT). Amplification was observed...

A cross-sectional study was conducted in Rano, Kano State to estimate the prevalence of Mycobacterium bovis infection in Fulani nomadic cattle herds based on Intradermal Tuberculin test. A total of two hundred and four cattle, consisting 82 males and 122 females were tested. Overall, 26 out of 204 cattle tested positive giving a prevalence rate of...

Diagnosis is concerned with identifying the cause of a disease or precise and consistent outcomes that are results of direct or indirect actions, reactions and interactions between the cause of a disease and the host. That outcome, if accurate, would help the clinician in disease management, or the epidemiologist in identifying trends of diseases o...

This study compared the value of pigment containing leucocytes (neutrophils and monocytes) counts and the malaria parasite density in the prognosis of severe malaria on four hundred and twenty (420) patients with clinical evidence of severe malaria in Kano-Nigeria. Three clinical groups comprising patients with impaired consciousness, patients with...

Cervical cancer is the most common female cancer in northern Nigeria, yet the pattern of infection with human papillomavirus, the principal aetiologic agent is unknown. This was a preliminary study conducted in two referral hospitals in order to establish base-line data on the prevalence and risk factors for the infection in Kano state, Nigeria. Fi...

Background: Quality Assurance (QA) system for AFB microscopy measures the quality of DOTS implementation in a Tuberculosis (TB) Control Programme. The Gombe State TB Control program is implementing the External Quality Assessment (EQA) of Acid Fast Bacilli (AFB) microscopy according to the Nigerian National Guidelines for TB control. We determine t...

Background: As a result of a weak External Quality Assessment (EQA) system, maintaining a Quality Assured AFB microscopy is a major challenge to peripheral microscopy centres in Nigeria. Interventions: In order to improve the quality and coverage of service, the Global Fund Round 5 Phase 2 and Round 9 Phase 1(October 2009 and June 2011) conducted...

Studies in northern Nigeria have suggested a linear relationship between urinary schistosomiasis and individual water-related activities. Knowledge of the perceptions of the local populace about schistosomoasis and of gender and cultural restrictions could be beneficial to control programmes. We studied the prevalence of urinary schistosomoasis and...

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the integration of malaria microscopy quality assessment (QA) with that of other microscopically diagnosed diseases, but there is no evidence that it has been attempted. We assessed the feasibility of linking malaria microscopy into the existing tuberculosis (TB) microscopy QA system in Kano, Nige...

The detection threshold of three immunochromatographic Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) Kits namely: HEXAGON MALARIA, ACCU-STAT MALARIA and SD-BIOLINE were studied using titration techniques. Parasitaemia values of pooled Plasmodium falciparum-positive specimens from 200 patients were determined. The samples were then prepared in 13 different dilutions...

The authors argue that one way of evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at controlling neglected tropical diseases would be to assess its impact on anemia prevalence.

The study examined the factors associated with recurrent cholera epidemics in Kano State of Northern Nigeria, the management of the epidemics and health outcomes. Using epidemiological data from the Public Health Department of the Kano State Ministry of Health, the study examined the frequency and geographical distribution of the epidemics for the...

ABSTRACT: The leukocyte counts of 73 patients with proven cases of typhoid fever were compared with that of 80 healthy individuals and 68 non-typhoid febrile patients in order to determine the diagnostic value of the leucocyte counts for typhoid fever. The mean total white blood count (WBC) of 5.9 ± 4.3 109/l; differential neutrophil count of 65 ±...