African health sciences
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African health sciences · Mar 2023
Prevalence of hepatitis-B virus co-infection among people living with HIV in Mthatha region of South Africa.
Hepatitis-B virus (HBV) co-infection among people living with HIV (PLWH) is highly endemic in South Africa. Despite the availability of an effective vaccine for the last four decades, chronic HBV infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among PLWH. Although the incidence of most opportunistic infections has been reduced in individuals with HIV since the implementation of the universal test and treat program in South Africa, HBV co-infection among PLWH is still accounting for high morbidity and mortality. ⋯ There is a high prevalence of HBV co-infection among PLWH in the Mthatha region of South Africa. The high prevalence of HBV co-infection indicates the need for routine screening for hepatitis B among PLWH in South Africa.
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African health sciences · Mar 2023
Evaluation of some immune and inflammatory responses in diabetes and HIV co-morbidity.
Co-existence of diabetes in the HIV infected reportedly further complicates the attendant impairment of immunity and increases susceptibility to opportunistic infections. ⋯ The increased IL-6, CRP, IgG, IgM and decreased CD4+ T cell counts observed in co-morbidity suggest that HIV and T2D co-morbidity exacerbate the immune and inflammatory impairment observed in either disease entity.
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African health sciences · Mar 2023
Laboratory characteristics among patients with COVID-19: a single-center experience from Khartoum, Sudan.
COVID19 is associated with a number of laboratory characteristics and changes with different levels of prognostic significance. We report changes in lab findings between severe and non-severe COVID-19 in patients that had molecular testing of nasopharyngeal swabs in Khartoum, Sudan. ⋯ The laboratory findings of CBC, D-dimer and CRP provide an essential contribution to predicti COVID-19 severity and prognosis.
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African health sciences · Mar 2023
Prevalence of gastrointestinal bleeding and frequency of selected predictors of mortality on the medical emergency ward at Mulago hospital.
There was no data on the prevalence of Gastrointestinal bleeding (GI) among patients admitted on the emergency ward at Mulago hospital. This was partly because the medical records were not adequately completed as designed. ⋯ The prevalence of GI bleeding on the medical emergency ward of Mulago hospital is high. This calls for strategies for resuscitative management of this life-threatening medical emergency. Among the selected predictors of mortality, tachycardia was most frequent followed by hypotension. These should always be assessed in a patient with GI bleeding and resuscitative measures with blood transfusion and intravenous fluids undertaken to correct them.
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African health sciences · Mar 2023
The integrity of psychophysical visual function in non-immunocompromised PLHIV (NIPLHIV) without retinitis on antiretroviral therapy (ART).
The present study investigated the integrity of contrast sensitivity (CS), colour vision, and pattern evoked vision potentials (VEP) in non-immunocompromised people living with HIV (NIPLHIV) without retinitis. ⋯ Contrast sensitivity function, colour vision, and VEP were uncompromised in NIPLHIV. Associations between CD4 counts with F100 total error scores and P100 latency may aid in the surveillance of vision of NIPLHIV.