Background: In countries with high child mortality rates, such as Nigeria, early intervention for common childhood illnesses (e.g., pneumonia and malaria) is essential for improving clinical outcomes. The timely reporting and treatment of fever is therefore critical in making a differential diagnosis and choosing an appropriate course of treatment. The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence and major risk factors associated with delays in seeking treatment for fever in children under five years of age in Nigeria. Methods: This study used a total weighted sample of 7,466 children under five years of age from the 2018 National Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey. Multivariable binary logistic regression modelling was used to investigate the association between predisposing, enabling, need, health service and community level factors, and delay in treatment-seeking for fever. Results: We report the delays in seeking treatment for childhood fever that was reported by mothers in the last two weeks prior to the national survey. The prevalence for delayed treatment was 62.1% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 60.1%, 64.1%). Our findings showed that there were fewer delays in seeking treatment in children aged 24–59 months (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.68, 0.93), among mothers who were formally employed (aOR = 0.84; 95% CI: 0.73, 0.96), regularly attended antenatal services (aOR = 0.76, 95%CI: 0.66, 0.88), and for those who resided in wealthier households (aOR = 0.71; 95% CI: 0.56, 0.89). Children whose mothers resided in the North-West geopolitical zone of Nigeria were less likely to delay seeking treatment for fever (aOR = 0.55; 95% CI: 0.42, 0.73). However, mothers who had an unwanted pregnancy had a higher odds of delaying treatment for childhood fever (aOR = 1.58; 95% CI: 1.05, 2.39). Conclusion: There were significant delays in seeking treatment for childhood fever in poorer homes found in geopolitically unstable zones of Nigeria. Mothers who were poor, unemployed, and with younger children (<12 months) often delayed seeking treatment for their febrile child. Future health promotion strategies and microenterprise schemes should target both rural and urban mothers residing in poor households. Children under 12 months of age should be a priority.

As research on parasitic helminths has entered the post-genomic era, research efforts have turned to deciphering the function of genes in the public databases of genome sequences. It is hoped that, by understanding the role of parasite genes in maintaining their parasitic lifestyle, critical insights can be gained to develop new intervention and control strategies. Methods to manipulate and transform parasitic worms are now developed to a point where it has become possible to gain a comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying host–parasite interplay, and here, we summarise and discuss the advances that have been made in schistosome transgenesis over the past 25 years. The ability to genetically manipulate schistosomes holds promise in finding new ways to control schistosomiasis, which ultimately may lead to the eradication of this debilitating disease.

Liquid biopsies promise major advantages for cancer screening and diagnosis. By detecting biomarkers in peripheral blood samples, liquid biopsies reduce the need for invasive techniques and provide important genetic information integral to the emerging molecular classification of cancers. Unfortunately, the concentrations of most biomarkers, particularly circulating tumour nucleic acids, are vanishingly small—beyond the sensitivity and specificity of most assays. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats diagnostics (herein labelled ‘CRISPR-Dx’) use gene editing tools to detect, rather than modify, nucleic acids with extremely high specificity. These tools are commonly combined with isothermal nucleic acid amplification to also achieve sensitivities comparable to high-performance laboratory-based techniques, such as digital PCR. CRISPR assays, however, are inherently well suited to adaptation for point-of-care (POC) use, and unlike antigen-based POC assays, are significantly easier and faster to develop. In this review, we summarise current CRISPR-Dx platforms and their analytical potential for cancer biomarker discovery, with an emphasis on enhancing early diagnosis, disease monitoring, point-of-care testing, and supporting cancer therapy.

Schistosoma mansoni is a human-infecting blood fluke responsible for schistosomiasis, the world’s most significant waterborne parasitic disease and a leading cause of morbidity in marginalized communities. Despite mass drug administration campaigns using praziquantel, reinfection rates remain high and long-term control is hampered by limited chemotherapeutic options. The urgent need for an effective vaccine has driven focused research on S. mansoni . This review synthesizes past and present advances in S. mansoni vaccine development, highlighting key biological insights, challenges and emerging vaccine strategies. We discuss the parasite’s complex lifecycle, contemporary vaccine candidates and outline future directions for vaccine research that may ultimately contribute to global schistosomiasis control.