Knowledge and Adherence to Safety Protocols among Journalists Serving as Frontline Workers in the COVID-19 Fight in Ebonyi State, Nigeria (Published)
This study investigated the knowledge and adherence to safety protocols among journalists serving as frontline workers in the COVID-19 fight in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was employed. Structured questionnaire served as instrument for data collection. The population of the study was all the one hundred and fifty-seven (157) registered journalists in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. The study was anchored on the Stages of Change Model and Health Belief Model. Simple percentage, frequency table, bar chart, T-test and Pearson’s chi square tests were used to analyse the research questions whereas t-test and Pearson’s chi square test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 significance level. Findings show that whereas majority of the respondents had good knowledge of Coronavirus personal protective measures, they lack the technicalities required to serve as frontline health workers in a highly infectious pandemic situation such as Coronavirus. The study recommends special training for journalists who cover pandemics, particularly highly infectious ones as Coronavirus to better equip them with the requisite skills for this genre of special assignment. Journalism training bodies and institutes could also consider the inclusion of pandemic reporting as part of specialized courses in journalism studies. Prioritizing vaccination of journalists who serve as frontline workers during pandemics is also strongly recommended.
Citation: Nwafor K., Nweke E. C, Orji Z.A. and Njoku J. (2022) Knowledge and Adherence to Safety Protocols among Journalists Serving as Frontline Workers in the COVID-19 Fight in Ebonyi State, Nigeria, International Journal of Ebola, AIDS, HIV and Infectious Diseases and Immunity, Vol.7, No.2, pp.17-34
Keywords: COVID-19, Journalists, pandemic reporting, quarantine centres, safety protocols
Qualitative Analysis of Quality of Life of Frontline Health Care Workers During Covid-19 Pandemic in Lagos State (Published)
Frontline health care workers seem to be the most affected category of people during any pandemic. Therefore, the study assessed quality of life of frontline health care workers during COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Lagos State. This study adopted descriptive phenomenology research design. An interview guide was used to determine quality of life of frontline healthcare workers. The sample consisted of 14 interviewees while qualitative data collected were subjected to thematic analysis. The result of findings revealed that frontline health workers experienced fatigue, discomfort, helplessness, fear and concern for COVID-19 patients, and traumatic experiences. Findings further revealed that there was too much workload at a time because of the increased COVID-19 patient compared to the available volunteers, fear of contracting the virus, the joy of seeing their patients getting well and reuniting back with their families. It was recommended among others that the welfare of health care workers should be put as priority in Lagos State and Nigeria in general as this may discourage brain drain causing limited number of frontline healthcare workers available during outbreak of infectious disease.
Citation: Gbenga-Epebinu, M .A., Ayorinde, A. M, Olaitan, O. T., and Osagie, J. T..(2022) Qualitative Analysis of Quality of Life of Frontline Health Care Workers During Covid-19 Pandemic in Lagos State , International Journal of Ebola, AIDS, HIV and Infectious Diseases and Immunity, Vol.7, No.2, pp.9-16
Keywords: COVID-19, Health Care Workers, Quality of life, front line
Knowledge, Attitude and Acceptability of COVID-19 Vaccination among Lecturers in Universities in Akwa Ibom State (Published)
This study examined knowledge, attitude and acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination among lecturers in universities in Akwa Ibom State. Descriptive survey design was used for this study. The design was aimed at collecting and analyzing data to describe the knowledge, attitude and acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination among lecturers in Akwa Ibom State. The population stood at 4,346 lecturers from University of Uyo and Akwa Ibom State University located in Akwa Ibom State. But 217 lecturers making 5% of the total population of lecturers was used as the sample size for this study. Convenience sampling technique was adopted in sampling the respondents across the four tertiary institutions. A 20-item instrument titled “Knowledge, Attitude and Acceptability of COVID-19 Vaccination Questionnaire” reliability index was 0.72 was used for data collection. Frequency and percentage were used in analyzing the collected data. Findings of the study revealed that participants had good knowledge about COVID-19 and its vaccine, but had negative attitude towards vaccination and low acceptability of vaccination. It was concluded that the participants in the study had satisfactory knowledge regarding COVID-19 and its vaccine but their negative attitude and low level of acceptability of the vaccine seemed to be influenced by insufficient clinical trials and fear of its side effects. Recommendations were made that the provision of sufficient information about the vaccines for COVID-19 is important as this would help to eliminate fear and doubts that people have against vaccines; regular and effective education is needed to improve public COVID-19 vaccine acceptability and reduce its hesitancy and appropriate COVID-19 vaccination strategies are necessary for wider coverage of the population for vaccine uptake campaigns.
Citation: Afia, Uduakobong Udeme , Obot, Valerie Okon , Johnson, Nsidibe Ita (2022) Knowledge, Attitude and Acceptability of COVID-19 Vaccination among Lecturers in Universities in Akwa Ibom State, International Journal of Ebola, AIDS, HIV and Infectious Diseases and Immunity, Vol.7, No.1, pp.38-50
Keywords: COVID-19, Knowledge, attitude, vaccination
Knowledge and Practice of Safety Protocols among Journalists Serving as Frontline Workers in the COVID-19 Fight in Ebonyi State, Nigeria (Published)
This study investigated the knowledge and practice of safety protocols among journalists serving as frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19 in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted. Structured questionnaire served as instrument for data collection. The population of the study was all the one hundred and fifty-seven (157) registered journalists in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. The study was anchored on the Stages of Change Model and Health Belief Model. Simple percentage, frequency table, bar chart, T-test and Pearson’s chi square tests were used to analyse the research questions whereas t-test and Pearson’s Chi square test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 significance level. Findings show that whereas majority of the respondents had good knowledge of Coronavirus personal protective measures, they lack the technicalities and personal protective equipment required to serve as frontline health workers in a highly infectious pandemic situation such as Coronavirus. The study recommends special training for journalists who cover pandemics, particularly highly infectious ones of this nature to better equip them with the requisite skills for this genre of special assignment. Journalism training bodies and institutes could also consider the inclusion of pandemic reporting as part of specialised courses in journalism studies. Prioritsing vaccination of journalists who serve as frontline workers during pandemics is also strongly recommended.
Citation: Kenneth Adibe Nwafor, Emmanuel Chukwudi Nweke, Zainab A. Oji and Ijeoma Njoku (2022) Knowledge and Practice of Safety Protocols among Journalists Serving as Frontline Workers in the COVID-19 Fight in Ebonyi State, Nigeria, International Journal of Ebola, AIDS, HIV and Infectious Diseases and Immunity, Vol.7, No.1, pp.20-37
Keywords: COVID-19, Journalists, knowledge and practice, pandemic reporting, safety protocols
Zinc and Covid-19: Novel ways to maintain optimal zinc balance (Published)
The earlier studies have shown that zinc deficiency can hinder host-defense systems to increase the susceptibility to various viral and bacterial infections, and thus in view of the global COVID-19 pandemic, potential protective effect of zinc is of particular interest. As it has become clear that zinc deficiency is induced by the non-transferrin-bound iron (NTBI) based on the our works, the use of our non-toxic iron chelators can be recommended as the supportive treatment in therapy of COVID-19 infection, because our iron chelators may prevent the zinc deficiency by inhibiting the formation of iron deposition containing much iron and zinc ions through removing or controlling the iron(III) ions in NTBI.
Keywords: Anti-oxidant Function, COVID-19, NTBI and Iron Deposition, Zinc