Articles

<b>Background:</b> Food borne outbreaks have been associated with sourcing unsafe food. Therefore, the first preventative strategy should be to source safe food. Even if the sourced food is safe, measures need to be put in place to ensure that it remains safe during the transfer, storage, preparation and serving activities that follow. An understanding of the ship food supply and transfer chain will help to illustrate the points at which the food can become contaminated en route to the point of consumption. <b>Objectives:</b> The study was conducted in selected sea port in the core Niger Delta to assessed the microbiological quality of food served at different ship galley to crew and passengers and compered it to standard. <b>Methods:</b> Samples of food were taken from three (Port Harcourt Area one (PHSP), Warri (WSP) and Koko (KSP)) seaports within the South-South zone for laboratory analysis to uncover food spoilage microorganisms capable of causing disease outbreak among ship which could result to Trans border diseases. Eleven samples of different ready to eat food were collected from the locations, which included cooked rice; fried fish, irish potato porridge, vegetable soup, griki, pepper soup, fried irish potato, salad and bread were collected randomly. The samples were prepared and analyzed using standard procedures. Mean viable counts of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria were determined, ranging from (13×103cfu/g to 78×104 cfu/g) for ready to eat food. <b>Results:</b> Based on the finding KSP I, KSP J and KSP K food samples had the highest bacterial contamination on food while WSP F, WSP G and WSP H food samples had the least with the following isolates <i>Salmonella </i><i>spp</i><i>, Nocardia </i><i>spp</i><i>, Shigella </i><i>spp</i><i>, Listeria </i><i>spp</i><i>, Bacillus cereus, </i><i>Leuconostoc</i><i> </i><i>spp</i><i>, Acinetobacter </i><i>spp</i><i>, Acetobacter </i><i>spp</i><i>, campylobacter </i><i>spp</i><i>, Clostridium </i><i>spp</i> and <i>Vibrio </i><i>spp</i> which revealed that the isolates were susceptible to any of these antibiotics Septrin, Chloramphenicol, Gentamycin, Tarvid, Streptomycin, Reflacin, Augumetin, Ceporex, Nalidixic acid, Ampicillin, Ciproflox, Penicillin and Erythromycin. <b>Conclusion:</b> Thus, ships operators and regulatory body are expected to take all practicable measures to ensure that they do not receive unsafe or unsuitable food and maintain adequate food temperature at all time.

<b>Background:</b> Coronavirus disease has caused global turmoil especially causing huge impact on human life all over the world. Current reports states more than 3 million people have lost life and more than 160 million people are known to be suspected with the SARS-CoV-2. Transmission and disease incidence rates are indicators to assess the seriousness of COVID-19 pandemic and studies to understand the factors that aid in this direction are very vital to curb the disease. <b>Methods:</b> The study intends to discover the relationship by performing statistical analysis using correlation and multiple linear regression analysis between the variable’s population density, temperature, relative humidity, and active time of virus and find out the parameters that predict the cases reported per million population in 83 countries. <b>Results:</b> Analysis indicates active time of virus in days is very positively associated with the COVID -19 cases in all the countries <i>r </i>= .604, <i>p</i> < .01. Active time of virus shows strong negative correlation with temperature <i>r</i> = -.930, <i>p</i> < .01 revealing that rise in temperature will reduce the virus activity in the population. Together, these variables will account for 36.2% variance in the cases per million population with no significant prediction estimated from any factor. <b>Conclusion:</b> The study outcomes clearly state that population density alone is insufficient to estimate the extent of influence on COVID -19 cases as the number of persons living per sq. km of land is a dynamic quantity tend to fluctuate over time and space due to migration of population. In conjunction to the previous studies reported on the environmental and climatic factors influencing the cases reported, population dynamics does not show much significance on the disease spread and incidence.<b> Contribution:</b> The rise in confirmed cases and the high incidence rate reported in countries can be attributed to the active time of virus life expectancy as there is a positive correlation observed between the COVID-19 cases reported and the virus active time in the examined countries. Also, environment and climatic factors play a role in modulating the infection and transmission rate with less significant influence of population density on the COVID-19.

We can’t stop breathing, but we can do something about the quality of air that we breathe. Clean fresh air is indispensable ingredient for a good life quality. Individuals poses the right towards expecting that the breathed air will not harm people. Thus, fighting air pollution will not only improve health outcomes, productivity, and well-being, it’s also essential toward reducing the emissions of greenhouse gas as well as fighting climate change. For examples, a third of the global population is at risk from unhealthy of ambient air pollutants concentrations, with the loss of approximately 6.4 million healthy-life-years attributed specifically to chronic exposure to ambient particulate matter. Expert panels have consistently rated air pollution as a greater health hazard than water pollution. Pollution of air is the leading source of unexplained and undiagnosed diseases, besides have remained associated with a variety of serious human health risks, and in fact, a threshold has not been established under which these pollutants exert no adverse effects. This study evaluates ambient air quality at major sawmill sites in Ilorin Metropolis, Kwara State, Nigeria. “Measurements of Air pollution were accurately carried out using direct reading, automatic in situ gas monitors; Hand held mobile multi-gas monitor with model AS8900 [Combustible (LEL), and Oxygen (O<SUB>2</SUB>)], BLATN with model BR – Smart Series air quality monitor (PM<SUB>10</SUB>, Formaldehyde) and air quality multimeter with model B SIDE EET100 (Dust (PM<SUB>2.5</SUB>), VOC, Temperature and Relative Humidity)”. The outcomes disclosed among others, the average concentrations of CO, O<SUB>2</SUB> as well as other measured parameters for instance formaldehyde (HcHo) etc., they are also consistently low as well as within acceptable range in terms of National as well as Global monitoring standards for air quality indices. However, there are few exceptions for instance the average volatile organic compounds (VOCs) concentrations, PM<SUB>2.5</SUB>, PM<SUB>10</SUB> as well as Combustible (LEL) respectively, which are higher when compared to National and Global standards. This high figure is due to pollutant amount existing in the sawmills air environment resulting from input of influents from activities of the sawmill. However, as a result, air pollution in the city of Ilorin is found to be increasingly polluted and are of major health concern because of their synergistic action. Due to the high evidences and values, it can lead to a remarkable rise in over-all figure of hospital visits/ patients’ admissions with acute respiratory illnesses as soon as air pollutants level remained high. Hence, there is the need for an aggressive control of ambient air pollution.