Subject: search.filters.subject.knowledge

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    Assessment of the knowledge and attitude of Jos residents toward the prevention and treatment of fever
    (Medical Journal of Dr. D.Y. Patil University, 2015) Jimam S. Nanloh; Galam Z. Nanyak; Dangiwa A. Dauda
    Background: A fever is a temporary increase in the body temperature, indicating that something out of the ordinary is going on in the body. Fever is a common sign of changes in the body of patients and a common cause of hospital visits, especially for children. Occurrence of fever in most cases is due to self-limiting viral infection or serious bacterial or other microbial infections. Aim: The study is aimed at assessing the current level of knowledge and attitudes of Jos residents about what fever is all about, its treatment and prevention. Materials and Methods: The study was cross-sectional in design, which involved a two-stage cluster random sampling procedure. Jos is divided into districts and in each districts, the area was broken down to sub-districts from which three zones where selected; based on population within the selected zones, households were randomly numbered and houses assigned odd number were identified. A semi-structured interviewer questionnaire was then administered to the respondents and the finally filled questionnaires were then retrieved and analyzed using the SPSS version 20.0 software programmer. Result: Out of the 400 respondents, 66.5% falls within the age range of 21-49 years with females constituting 56.5% of the study population. Educationally, 45.9% of the respondents had completed secondary schools while 39.6% had bachelor degree. 67.2% of the respondents agreed that malaria was the common conditions that come with fever, followed by typhoid fever (19%). 26.5% of the respondents agreed that personal preventive/environmental hygiene remain the mainstay when it comes to fever prevention, with 26.5% also believing that the use of pesticides/rodenticides was another preventive measure, whereas 20.6% agreed that chemoprophylaxis was another option. Conclusion: The study showed that the residence of Jos had good knowledge of conditions that are associated with fever and its management, which might be due to the literacy levels of the study population; there is still need to improve their knowledge on the other conditions that comes with fever and their preventive measures.
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    Pharmacists’ knowledge and perceptions about herbal medicines: A case study of Jos and environs
    (Wolters Kluwer - Medknow, 2017) Nanloh S. Jimam; Benjamin N. Joseph; Dooshima C. Agba
    Background: Due to increased health consciousness among the public, the use of herbal products are on the increase on a daily basis. To achieve optimal benefits, there is a need for pharmacists who are the custodians of knowledge on drugs and drugs‑related products to have more understanding and interest in herbal medicine for effective counseling on the products. The purpose of this study was to assess Pharmacists’ knowledge and perceptions regarding herbal medicine use. Methods: Self‑administered questionnaires were administered to 200 pharmacists working within the study areas to fill; after which the collected data were statistically analyzed using IBM SPSS software programmer, version 20. Results: Only 88.5% of the respondents responded on the questionnaires, and their mean age was 34 years; median year of experience in practice was 8.2 years; and their areas of practice included hospital (56.1%), community (28.1%), academic (8.47%), and industries (4.52%). More than half (76.27%) of them believed that herbal products were more efficacious and safer (61.02%) than orthodox medicines; with almost all of them (94.92%) acknowledging the beneficial effects of incorporating herbal medicines into orthodox medicine practice. However, most of them (72.88%) confessed having little knowledge on herbal remedies, especially drug‑herbs interactions (81.36%), and their main source of information on herbs was from school (56.50%). Conclusions: The result showed poor level of pharmacists’ knowledge on herbal medicine; which might result in poor patients’ counseling on herbal therapy, especially regarding their safety and potential interaction with orthodox medicine.