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Exposure to heavy metals pollutions in water predisposes consumers to human and environmental health deterioration. In this study, the extent of heavy metals contamination, water quality index, ecological and human health risk assessments of groundwater resources in Ajao industrial area of Lagos, Nigeria were carried out. Results revealed that Cu is the most prevalent heavy metal, contaminating 85.71% of the analyzed water samples. Based on the groundwater quality index, 76.19% of the samples are of excellent water quality and suitable for drinking, domestic and industrial purposes. However, the quality of 23.81% variedly deteriorated. Ecological risk assessment revealed that 85.71% and 14.29% of the samples pose low and moderate ecological risks, respectively. This assessment also showed that Cu was the major heavy metal posing ecological risk in the industrial area. Based on hazard quotients, Cu impacted the potentiality of chronic diseases than other heavy metals. Health hazard index analysis revealed that children are more exposed to non-carcinogenic chronic health risks due to ingestion of contaminated groundwater than the adult population. Probability of cancer risk (PCR) revealed that 19.05% of the samples pose high Cr cancer risk for both adult and children, while 14.29% pose high Cd and Ni cancer risks. Correlation and factor analyses indicated that the origin of the heavy metals in water is majorly attributed to anthropogenic inputs rather than natural, geogenic processes. Awareness programs towards protecting the groundwater in this area should be launched and encouraged. Moreover, contaminated water should be treated before use.

Several numerical models have been utilized in water quality assessments for various purposes. Among all the commonly used models, entropy-weighted water quality index (EWQI) has been recognized as the most unbiased model for assessing drinking water quality. Therefore, this paper presents a case study of the application of EWQI in assessing the effect of effluent-derived heavy metals on the groundwater quality in Ajao industrial estate, Nigeria. Three environmental pollution risk assessment tools were integrated to better evaluate the level of heavy metals contamination in the groundwater. Geoaccumulation index ( I geo ) placed 66% of the samples in uncontaminated to moderately contaminated category. However, 19% showed moderate to heavy contamination, whereas 14.29% were heavily contaminated. Similarly, enrichment factor (EF) revealed that 52% of the samples have minimal enrichment, 33% are moderately enriched, while 14.29% were extremely enriched with heavy metals. Vector modulus of pollution index (PI vector ) showed that the majority of the samples (80.9%) have low pollution, 4.76% recorded moderate pollution, while 14.29% had considerable to very high pollution. The EWQI showed that the majority (85.71%) of the groundwater samples are excellent drinking water, while 14.29% are unsuitable for drinking. However, a dendrogram integrating the results of the I geo , EF, PI vector , and EWQI was produced by hierarchical cluster analysis to harmonize and demarcate the groundwater quality in this industrial area. Although this study confirms the suitability of most samples for drinking, more awareness programs towards the protection of the groundwater should be embraced.

Numerous indicator models have been developed and utilized for the assessment of pollution levels in water resources. In the present study, modified water quality index (MWQI), integrated water quality index (IWQI), and entropy-weighted water quality index (EWQI) were integrated with statistical analysis for the assessment of drinking water quality in Umunya suburban district, Nigeria. There is no known study that has simultaneously compared their performances in water quality research. Overall, the results of this study showed that the water supplies are threatened by heavy metal pollution. The parametric quality rating analysis observed that Pb contamination has the most significant impact on the water supplies. Hierarchical cluster analysis was proved very efficient in the allotment of the possible sources of pollution in the study area. MWQI results classified the water supplies as “marginal”, signifying that they are frequently threatened. Based on the IWQI, 26.67% of the samples are suitable for drinking, 13.33% are acceptable for domestic uses, and 60% are unfit for drinking purposes. Similarly, the EWQI results showed that 60% of the samples are unfit for human consumption, whereas 40% are suitable. Investigation into the performance and sensitivity of the MWQI, IWQI and EWQI models in water quality assessment was analyzed and the results showed that they are all sensitive, efficient and effective tools. This study has indicated that the integration of the three models gives a better understanding of water quality. The excessive concentration of some potentially toxic heavy metals in the water supplies suggests that the contaminated water supplies should be treated before use.

Lassa virus (LASV) is endemic in parts of West Africa where it causes Lassa fever (LF), a viral hemorrhagic fever with frequent fatal outcomes. The diverse LASV strains are grouped into six major lineages based on the geographical location of the isolated strains. In this study, we have focused on the lineage II strains from southern Nigeria. We determined the viral sequences from positive cases of LF reported at tertiary hospitals in Ebonyi and Enugu between 2012 and 2016. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) showed that 29 out of 123 suspected cases were positive for the virus among which 11 viral gene sequences were determined. Phylogenetic analysis of the complete coding sequences of the four viral proteins revealed that lineage II strains are broadly divided into two genetic clades that diverged from a common ancestor 195 years ago. One clade, consisting of strains from Ebonyi and Enugu, was more conserved than the other from Irrua, although the four viral proteins were evolving at similar rates in both clades. These results suggested that the viruses of these clades have been distinctively evolving in geographically separate parts of southern Nigeria. Furthermore, the epidemiological data of the 2014 outbreak highlighted the role of human-to-human transmission in this outbreak, which was supported by phylogenetic analysis showing that 13 of the 16 sequences clustered together. These results provide new insights into the evolution of LASV in southern Nigeria and have important implications for vaccine development, diagnostic assay design, and LF outbreak management.

Critical slope stability analysis has proven to be a reliable technique which could be used in gully erosion risk assessments. The integration of experimental and stability modelling has assisted extensively in the analysis of natural slopes. In the current paper, several geotechnical properties and slope parameters were studied in an attempt to characterize gullying processes and risk in southern Anambra State, Nigeria. Field mapping, geotechnical analyses, geostatistical analyses, and limit equilibrium simulations were integrated to achieve the research objectives. The field measurements showed that most of the gullies are characterized by high slope angles ranging between 18° and 85°. Based on the geotechnical analysis, the soil slopes were observed to be highly vulnerable to landsliding. Principal component and regression analyses efficiently captured the interrelationships between the analyzed erosion gully parameters. Several slope stability models were used to estimate the factor of safety (FS) of the slope materials. It was revealed that most of the slopes are unstable and vulnerable whereas others are critically to moderately stable. Furthermore, while the slopes recorded FS in the range of 0.82–1.72 in unsaturated condition, FS of 0.70–1.33 was observed for saturated condition. This result indicated that the gully slopes are more vulnerable to failure by erosive forces in wet season, due to rainwater infiltration and pore-water pressure buildup. Gully slopes within the Nanka Formation showed higher failure vulnerability than those in Ogwashi and Benin formations. The details of this study would be helpful towards the mitigation of landslide hazards in the study area.

We sought to determine the prevalence of probable disseminated histoplasmosis among advanced HIV disease (AHD) patients in Nigeria. We conducted a cross-sectional study in 10 sites across 5 of 6 geopolitical zones in Nigeria. We identified patients with urinary samples containing CD4 cell counts <200 cells/mm or World Health Organization stage 3 or 4 disease who also had >2 clinical features of disseminated histoplasmosis, and we tested them for Histoplasma antigen using a Histoplasma enzyme immune assay. Of 988 participants we recruited, 76 (7.7%) were antigen-positive. The 76 Histoplasma antigen-positive participants had significantly lower (p = 0.03) CD4 counts; 9 (11.8%) were also co-infected with tuberculosis. Most antigen-positive participants (50/76; 65.8%; p = 0.015) had previously received antiretroviral treatment; 26/76 (34.2%) had not. Because histoplasmosis is often a hidden disease among AHD patients in Nigeria, Histoplasma antigen testing should be required in the AHD package of care.

Background Necrotizing soft tissue infection of the ear following ear piercing is a very rare condition. It is easily misdiagnosed leading to reconstructive morbidities and mortality in neonates. High clinical suspicion is important for early diagnosis. Our knowledge, this is the first case reported in the literature in this unique initial presentation. We hope to heighten the awareness of necrotizing soft tissue infection of the ear following ear piercing to ensure early aggressive intervention. Case presentation We report a set of 19-day-old female twin neonates who developed bilateral ear sores following ear piercing in a primary healthcentre without adherence to surgical asepsis. Examination findings showed features consistent with necrotizing soft tissue infections of the ears. They were successfully managed with antibiotics and wound care. Conclusion Necrotizing soft tissue infections is a very rare complication of neonatal ear piercing. It may occur following suboptimal aseptic procedure and a high index of suspicion is necessary to make this diagnosis to ensure early intervention and to forestall the potential reconstructive morbidities and mortality associated with late recognition. Adherence to basic aseptic surgical principles is the key to prevention of necrotizing soft tissue infections.

The May 2nd and 3rd, 2023 landslide in Rwanda’s Western Province caused a devastating natural disaster, resulting in the tragic loss of 95 lives. Ngororero, Rubavu, Nyabihu, and Karongi were the worst-hit areas, as reported by Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA). Such recurring disasters have posed significant challenges to the affected communities, requiring strong measures like susceptibility mapping to address their impact in the future. The literature review indicates that statistic and machine-learning susceptibility mapping efforts have been applied in the study region. However, these studies have not focused explicitly on localized scale studies of the western province; instead, they have mainly concentrated on examining the entire country. Using artificial neural networks (ANN), Shannon entropy (SE), and frequency ratio (FR), this paper aims to fill some gaps in the Rwandan landslide literature by integrating localized studies of the landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) of the western province of Rwanda using the available higher data resolution. The LSM studies took 1157 landslide inventory locations and considered a broader range of landslide-conditioning factors compared to the previous studies on the region (distance from the road, aspect, elevation, slope degree, stream power index, normalized differential vegetation index, plan curvature, distance from the river, topographic wetness index, geology, and rainfall). In model training, 70% (810 points) of the landslide points underwent utilization, while the remaining 30% (347 points) served the purpose of model testing. The obtained area under the curve (AUC) values from model validation and testing provided reliable accuracy measures for the three LSM methods: ANN (AUC = 0.929 and 0.924), FR (AUC = 0.895 and 0.889), and SE (AUC = 0.768 and 0.750). Despite varying data handling, the models show that Rutsiro, Ngororero, and Karongi in Rwanda's Western Province have the highest landslide concentration. The relative importance of conditioning factors indicates that geology, rainfall, distance to the road, slope, and NDVI factors played a crucial role in landslides in the studied area. The slope can be stabilized by enhancing drainage, modifying slope angles, and implementing structural fortifications. It is hoped that the findings of this study will aid Rwandan policymakers and global researchers mitigate landslides and their dynamics.

The continuous deterioration of drinking water quality supplies by several anthropogenic activities is a serious global challenge in recent times. In this current study, the drinking water quality of Ikem rural agricultural area (southeastern Nigeria) was assessed using chemometrics and multiple indexical methods. Twenty-five groundwater samples were collected from hand-dug wells and analyzed for physicochemical parameters such as pH, major ions, and heavy metals. The pH of the samples (which ranged between 5.2 and 6.7) indicated that waters were slightly acidic. Cations and anions (except for phosphate) were within their respective standard limits. Except for Mn, heavy metals were also found to be below their maximum allowable limits. Factor analysis identified both geogenic processes and anthropogenic inputs as possible origins of the analyzed physicochemical parameters. Modified heavy metal index, geoaccumulation index, and overall index of pollution revealed that all the hand-dug wells were in excellent condition, and hence safe for drinking purposes. However, pollution load index, water quality index (WQI), and entropy-weighted water quality index (EWQI) revealed that some wells (about 8–12%) were slightly contaminated, and hence are placed in good water category. A hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was performed based on the integration of the WQI and EWQI results. The HCA revealed two major quality categories of the samples. While the first cluster comprises of samples classified as excellent drinking water by both WQI and EWQI models, the second cluster comprises of about 12% samples which were identified as good water by either the WQI or EWQI.

Adequate evaluation, monitoring, and prediction of groundwater resources are essential because humans heavily rely on groundwater for drinking, domestic, and industrial needs. The current study aimed at evaluating the quality of groundwater for drinking and industrial purposes in Awka and Nnewi urban metropolises (southeastern Nigeria) using indexical and artificial neural network (ANN) methods. The temperature of the studied groundwaters was found to range from 23 to 28 °C. The pH values revealed that the waters are acidic, though the groundwaters in Awka are acidic more than those in Nnewi. The majority of the analyzed physicochemical parameters (conductivity, total dissolved solids, Cl, SO4, HCO3, and Ca) examined were found to be below acceptable standard limits. In the metropolises, integrated water quality index (IWQI) classified over 75% of the groundwaters as unfit for drinking. Except for the Revelle index (RI), which classified 70% of the water samples within the Awka metropolis as slightly affected by salinization and 90% as strongly affected by salinization in the Nnewi metropolis, all other corrosivity and encrustation potential indices (Larson–Skold index (LSI), chloride–sulfate mass ration (CSMR), Langelier index (LI), aggressive index (AI), Ryznar stability index (RSI), and Puckorius (PSI)) utilized classified all the groundwater as having a high corrosivity. This demonstrates that the groundwaters in both metropolises have higher corrosion potential than encrustation potential. Additionally, the eight ANN models produced in this study function admirably. The ANN models performed well in the order IWQI > LSI > RSI > CSMR > LI > AI > PSI > RI according to R2 values. High performance of the models was validated by the R2, residual error, relative error, and sum of square error values. The findings of this paper would offer valuable insights for sustainable and strategic management of the groundwater resources.