Öz
The novel Corona virus 2 tagged COVID-19 has caused widespread medical and economic damage globally. Literarily, the pandemic virtually brought the whole world to a standstill. The new world order is social distancing, hand cleanliness and lockdown. As at March 31, 2020, the World Health Organization Dashboard for Africa had over 4000 individuals affected with over 100 deaths. These figures are less frightening when one considered the number of cases infected and the case fatalities in other continents. The reasons why the disease is less severe in Africa will emerge with time. Unfortunately, community spread has led to massive increase in the number of individuals affected at the present time.
This issue of the journal publishes 17 manuscripts that are not related to COVID-19 infection which some readers would have expected. The key messages from these papers are highlighted. The six manuscripts from dental practitioners directed the attention of readers to the essence of obtaining consent before dental procedures like pulp therapy and fixed orthodontic surgery; the use of standard protocols and guidelines for tooth shade selection; high prevalence of poor oral health among the elderly in rural communities due to less frequent cleaning, and at the other extreme, the less than satisfactory tooth brushing skills and oral hygiene practices of school children. Ibiyemi pointed out the high fluoride concentration of ground water in rural communities which should necessitate defluoridation. Lastly, Opeodu and others reported that about 4% of extracted teeth had cervical enamel productions associated with caries and periodontal disease.
The pathogenesis of liver damage caused by ingestion of local gin was reported to be due to oxidative damage while another group of researchers reported that coconut water enhanced memory in mice through oxidative mechanism, coincidentally. Ojagbemi and Bello used meta-analysis of data from 38 studies on dementia in sub-Saharan Africa to arrive at a regional prevalence of 4.0% which was close to the Alzheimer Disease International figure of 4.7% published in 2017. Okeahialam and colleagues documented bendopnoea in 34% of heart failure patients in Jos which denoted severe disease that could require palliative care. Late presentation was reported as one of the reasons why diabetic patients developed diabetic foot ulcers. Akande and colleagues advised education of patients and health care workers for early presentation and referrals, respectively. Adel eye and colleagues did not support the idea of a cushioning effect of maxillofacial injury on the severity of head injury in their study.
Pain perception following Caesarean section which was satisfactorily managed in over 80% of cases was influenced by spousal and family support in a report, while 11% of women with pre-eclampsia developed kidney dysfunction. Adedeji and colleagues reported on high frequency of indiscriminate use of antibiotics due to ready availability which should necessitate legislative sanction. In patients with multidrug resistant tuberculosis, HIV co-infection and being female were associated with poor treatment outcome as reported by Bamgboye and others. Two cases of rare Axenfeld-Riegers syndrome associated with glaucoma completed the original papers. On a lighter note, Okeahialam reminisced on his undergraduate training in Ibadan.
It is anticipated that these papers would be interesting to our readers and stimulate mechanistic research followed by implementation. That would enhance the significance of the findings from observational studies; although COVID-19 is on the front burner now.
A. Ogunniyi
Editor-in-Chief