The Nigerian postgraduate medical journal
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Niger Postgrad Med J · Jul 2020
Use of psychoactive substances among patients presenting at the emergency department of a tertiary hospital.
Psychoactive substance use is frequently encountered in hospitals' emergency departments (EDs). It accounts for major health-care problems frequently leading to accident and ED admissions, yet it is frequently unidentified. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and pattern of psychoactive substance use among patients presenting in the Accident and EDs and to compare the case detection rate of psychoactive substance use between self-report questionnaire and biochemical markers (e.g., urine toxicology). ⋯ The prevalence of drug use recorded among attendees of the accident and emergency unit was high in this study. The UDT significantly detected more patients who used psychoactive substances compared to self-report (P < 0.001). Several patients with major health problems as a result of psychoactive substance use were identified with the aid of these screening tools.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began in China with a group of severe pneumonia cases, later identified to be caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in December 2019. Thailand reported the first COVID-19 case outside of China on 13th January 2020, Africa reported its first case in Egypt on 14th February 2020 and Nigeria reported its index case of COVID-19 on 27th February 2020. Virtually, all countries in the world are affected, with over 5 million cases reported globally. ⋯ The pandemic has had a severe effect on health systems globally, including an unintended disruption in the service delivery of other diseases. It has the potential to disrupt the weak health system in Nigeria significantly. As such, a combination of non-pharmaceutical preventive measures that are cost-effective needs to be scaled up to prevent it from further weakening the existing health system.
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Niger Postgrad Med J · Jul 2020
A proposed research misconduct policy for universities and postgraduate colleges in developing countries.
Research misconduct policy (RMP) is a legal document that shows the definitions of the various types of misconduct, describes the inquiry and investigation of allegations, and the appropriate penalties that should be imposed. The presence of the adopted RMP on the website of a university or postgraduate college is an indication of the level of commitment to promote the proper handling of misconduct cases. Perusal of the websites of top universities in developing countries revealed that many do not have RMP on their websites. ⋯ The proposed RMP was designed to act as a template. It should be modified as required based on the prevailing local circumstances and made fit for purpose. Universities, postgraduate colleges and journals should have RMP on the homepage of their websites.