Background: Oxidative stress plays a central role in the pathophysiology of sickle cell anaemia (SCA), contributing to haemolysis, endothelial dysfunction, and disease complications.Hydroxyurea (HU), the main disease-modifying therapy for SCA, may influence oxidative balance; however, evidence in children from resource-limited settings remains limited.Objective: To evaluate oxidative stress and antioxidant status among children with sickle cell anaemia, comparing hydroxyurea users and non-users, and to examine variations according to clinical disease severity and socioeconomic status.Methods: This cross-sectional comparative study included 110 children with SCA aged 2-17 years attending Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa (WGH).Participants were stratified into HU users (n = 55) and non-HU users (n = 55).Oxidative stress markers, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants, and antioxidant vitamins were measured using Waters' high performance liquid chromatography methods.Disease severity was assessed using the Kuti and Adegoke severity scale, while socioeconomic status was classified using the Olusanya socioeconomic classification.Data was analyzed using appropriate parametric tests, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05.Results: Hydroxyurea users had significantly lower white blood cell counts compared with non-users (p = 0.018).Although mean malondialdehyde level was lower in HU users, the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.181).No significant differences were observed in other oxidative stress markers, antioxidant enzymes, antioxidant vitamins, or total antioxidant capacity between HU users and non-users.Oxidative and antioxidant parameters did not differ significantly across disease severity categories or socioeconomic classes.Conclusion: Children with sickle cell anaemia exhibit a persistent oxidative burden irrespective of hydroxyurea use, disease severity, or socioeconomic status.While hydroxyurea demonstrates favourable haematological effects, its impact on oxidative stress appears limited.Adjunctive strategies targeting oxidative stress may be necessary to improve clinical outcomes in paediatric SCA.
Introduction: The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Early Childhood Education (ECE) represents a transformative paradigm shift globally, yet Nigeria's ECE sector remains critically underexplored in this domain. Problem: Despite AI's demonstrated potential to enhance foundational literacy, numeracy, and personalized learning, Nigerian ECE faces systemic barriers including inadequate infrastructure, low teacher preparedness, ethical concerns, and the absence of comprehensive policy frameworks. Significance: This inquiry critically examines the pedagogical opportunities, systemic challenges, and policy imperatives for AI integration in Nigerian ECE, addressing a significant gap in empirical and theoretical literature. Method: Adopting a critical analytical methodology grounded in constructivist theory, critical rationalism, and African humanism, this study synthesizes peer-reviewed literature, policy documents, and empirical studies published between 2015 and 2026, drawing extensively from verified Nigerian-focused research.
Onyung Sandra Effiong, Orji Cyrus Ebere, Agu Mercy Oluchi et al.
Reducing gender inequality could increase GDP per capita by more than a fourth in Niger by 2030. These significant economic gains would be generated by enabling women to have the same earnings as men and reducing fertility and thereby population growth. Investing in girls’ education and reducing child marriage are critical to achieve these objectives, as are investments to raise women’s participation in the labor force and their productivity at work. While the estimates of the gains presented in this study are meant only to provide orders of magnitude, they suggest that achieving gender equality could have major benefits and should be a top priority for the government. (Niger)
The authors evaluate an intervention to raise young women’s economic empowerment in Sierra Leone, where women frequently experience sexual violence and face multiple economic disadvantages. The intervention provides them with a protective space (a club) where they can find support, receive information on health or reproductive issues and vocational training. Unexpectedly, the post-baseline period coincided with the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Our analysis documents the impact of the Ebola outbreak on the economic lives of 4,700 women tracked over the crisis, and any ameliorating role played by the intervention. In highly disrupted control villages, the crisis leads younger girls to spend significantly more time with men, out-of-wedlock pregnancies rise, and as a result, they experience a persistent 16pp drop in school enrolment post-crisis. These adverse effects are almost entirely reversed in treated villages because the intervention enables young girls to allocate time away from men, preventing out-of-wedlock pregnancies and enabling them to re-enroll in school post-crisis. In treated villages, the unavailability of young women leads some older girls to use transactional sex as a coping strategy. The intervention causes them to increase contraceptive use so this does not translate into higher fertility. (Africa)
The development objective of the Multisectoral Nutrition and Child Development Project for Cote d'Ivoire is to increase the coverage of early childhood nutrition and development interventions i selected areas in the Recipient’s territory. This restructuring aims to extend the closing date from January 2018 to June 2023. (Cote d'Ivoire)
The development objective of Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria Project is to increase utilization of quality, cost-effective nutrition services for pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls and children under five years of age in select areas of the Recipient's territory. This project has two components. 1) The first component, Basic Package of Nutrition Services, aims to scale up a basic package of nutrition-related interventions in twelve states. 2) The second component, Stewardship and Project Management, aims to strengthen key stewardship functions at the federal and state levels for the sustained delivery of nutrition services. (Nigeria)
Nutrition has been ingrained in key social and economic development policies in Senegal since the birth of the Republic. The evolution of nutrition policy, and its impact on the state of nutrition in Senegal, is the result of a constant interplay between social, environmental, and economic events; politics; the state of nutrition knowledge; and the engagement and influence of external stakeholders. Nutrition policy also encompasses what actually gets implemented; therefore, it is also influenced by available capacity and resources at all levels. With a 46 percent reduction in under-five stunting, from 34.4 percent in 1992 to just over 19.4 percent in 2014, Senegal has witnessed one of the biggest rates of improvement in the world and currently has one of the lowest rates of stunting in West Africa. This success has put Senegal in the spotlight, and other countries, especially those in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, look to Senegal as a model for nutrition intervention. Indeed, in the global fight against malnutrition, more often than not Senegal has been ahead of the curve, in a position of informing global advocacy initiatives, not just a beneficiary of the global evidence base. The purpose of this report is to provide an historical overview of nutrition policies in Senegal including analysis of the nutrition policy landscape, the evolution of nutrition policies and institutions, and their implications in terms of programming and prioritization of interventions. In so doing, the report aims to provide context to future nutrition investment and the PSMN currently under development, and to inform the decision-making process at this critical juncture. Here, ‘policy’ refers to all guidance for the management of nutrition, be it effective (everyone does it) or ineffective (it never leaves the paper it is written on), formal (written and adopted) or informal (unwritten institutional behaviors and practices). The timeline of nutrition policies and related initiatives is provided in appendix A. (Senegal)
