Urinary tract infection (UTI) represents one of the most common diseases encountered in community medical practice. In resource poor settings, treatment is usually empiric due to the high cost and long duration required for reporting diagnosis by culture and antibiotic susceptibility testing. With the growing problem of drug resistance knowledge of antibiotic susceptibility pattern is pertinent for successful eradication of invading pathogens. Our study, the first of its kind in Cameroon, analyzed the distribution and antibiotic susceptibility of bacteria causing community-acquired urinary tract infection (CAUTI) in two towns (Bamenda and Buea) with a large number of young and middle aged persons, to provide data that could guide empiric treatment.

INTRODUCTION: Hepatitis B infection is caused by the Hepatitis B virus (HBV). HBV is transmitted through sexual intercourse, by exchange of saliva during kissing and also to newborns of infected mothers. In the Global Burden of Diseases 2010, 786,000 deaths were attributed to HBV. Studies in Cameroon, reported the prevalence of HBV as high as 10.1% and 12% among blood donors in hospital blood banks. This study therefore, aims at determining the prevalence of HBsAg, knowledge and practices of pregnant women on HBV prevention and transmission in the Limbe Health District (LHD) and Muyuka Health District (MHD). METHODS: ANC registers were exploited from the Health Centers for a period of three years (2014-2016) inorder to determine the prevalence of HBV infection. 270 women attending ANC were selected by exhaustive sampling. Knowledge and practices of participants on HBV prevention and transmission was assessed using a structured questionnaire. RESULTS: the prevalence of HBV in the LHD and MHD were 5.7% and 7.5% respectively. Pregnant women in the LHD demonstrated good knowledge but adopted poor practices whereas in the MHD, pregnant women demonstrated poor knowledge and adopted poor practices regarding the mode of transmission and prevention of HBV infection. There was a significant association between the prevalence of HBsAg and marital status (p = 0.000) in the LHD and age (p = 0.022) in the MHD. CONCLUSION: this study indicated a high prevalence of HBV among pregnant women in the LHD and MHD, knowledge and practices were identified as potential risk factors.

Background: Coliform bacteria are major causative agents of bovine mastitis, a disease that has devastating effect on dairy animal health and milk production. This cross-sectional study, carried out in the North West region of Cameroon, sought to determine the prevalence of bovine mastitis, coliforms associated with bovine mastitis, risk factors for infection and the antibiotic resistance pattern of coliform bacterial isolates.Materials and methods: A total of 1608 udder quarters were sampled from 411 cows using a questionnaire, clinical examination, California Mastitis Test and milk culture. Primary isolation of coliform bacteria was done on MacConkey agar while identification of coliforms employed Gram-staining and biochemical testing. Each coliform bacterial isolate was challenged with 11 antibiotics using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method.Results: The prevalence of mastitis was 53.0% (218/411) and 33.1% (532/1608) at the cow- and quarter-levels respectively. Overall, 21.9% (90/411) cows and 8.2% (132/1608) udder quarters showed coliform mastitis.Escherichia coliwas isolated in 7.0% of mastitis milk, and other coliforms isolated wereEnterobacter cloacae(12.6%),Klebsiella pneumoniae(2.4%),Enterobacter sakazakii(1.1%),Klebsiella oxytoca(0.8%),Citrobacter freudii(0.4%),Serratia ficaria(0.4%) andSerratia liquefaciens(0.2%). Lactation stage, breed, history of mastitis and moist/muddy faeces contaminated environment were significantly associated (P-value < 0.05) with coliform mastitis. Coliform isolates (99.0%; 203/205) were resistant to at least one antibiotic tested. Amoxicillin had the highest resistance (88.8%) while norfloxacin had the least resistance (3.4%). Multidrug resistance was exhibited by 52.7% (108/205) of the isolates in a proportion of 27.8%Enterobacter cloacae, 10.7%E.coli, 6.3%Klebsiella pneumoniae, 2.9%Enterobacter sakazakii, 2.0%Klebsiella oxytoca, 1.0%Citrobacter freundii, 1.0%Serratia ficaria, 0.5%Serratia liquefaciensand 0.5%Serratia odorifera.Conclusion: Results indicate a need to educate these dairy farmers about mastitis (particularly subclinical), proper hygiene methods in milking and the public health implications of consuming contaminated raw milk.

INTRODUCTION: Since December 2019, the world is experiencing, the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the Virus SARS-CoV-2. It is feared that the pandemic maybe more devastating in conflict affected areas in the world. This study assessed the knowledge, attitudes and practices with regard to the COVID-19 in Buea municipality, Cameroon. METHODS: this was a cross-sectional study carried out in communities selected from 5 health areas of the Buea Health District. A questionnaire was administered to collect data on the knowledge, attitudes and practices on COVID-19. The knowledge was measured using a 26-points Liker scale on awareness, mode of transmission, clinical manifestation, site of the infection and prevention. The data was analyzed in SPSS version 25. RESULTS: of the 545 particpants who consented, 21.9% had a correct knowledge of COVID-19, 43.8% had intermediate knowledge, 34.4% had poor knowledge and 11.93% had no knowledge. Majority of the participants (73.3%) knew they were at risk of contacting the infection. They were aware that cleaning and disinfecting the environment (78.8%), reducing contact with animals (56.3%) could help prevent the infection. Even though participants knew about the face mask (93.5%) and hand sanitizers (88.8%), only 21.7% and 32.9% had purchased them respectively. Few participants reported that they will go to a man of God (6.0%), native doctor (3.5%) and auto-medication (25.8%) if infected. CONCLUSION: There is still a knowledge gap in the Buea population with respect to COVID-19. The population is aware of the disease and preventive measures, but few have taken steps to procure essential tools for the prevention. There is need to intensify sensitization to fill the knowledge gap the population has with regards to COVID-19.