Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
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Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. · Jan 1984
Endemic Lassa fever in Liberia. I. Clinical and epidemiological aspects at Curran Lutheran Hospital, Zorzor, Liberia.
In a study to assess the epidemiological and clinical aspects of endemic Lassa fever (LF) in Liberia at Curran Lutheran Hospital (CLH), 44 cases were diagnosed by virological and serological techniques over a 22-month period. During one calendar month, testing of febrile patients admitted to the medical-surgical ward revealed six cases of LF, 13% of all febrile cases and 17% of those who were tested. As the study progressed the diagnostic skills of the hospital staff improved. ⋯ The mortality rate in the medical-surgical ward was 5.4%; the over-all case-fatality rate was 13.6%. Women outnumbered men by nearly three to one, and had a higher mortality particularly noted in the pregnant. LF is common at CLH, and as many as 100 cases may occur annually at this hospital.
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Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. · Jan 1984
Endemic Lassa fever in Liberia. II. Serological and virological findings in hospital patients.
Patients admitted with fever to four Liberian hospitals were tested for Lassa fever (LF) by means of the indirect fluorescent antibody technique and by virus isolation. The incidence of LF and presumptive LF among consecutive febrile adult patients was 14% and 17% in two hospitals located in the interior; no cases of LF were found among 24 consecutive patients in a hospital near the coast. ⋯ LF is a common cause of fever in northern Liberia. The diagnosis depends upon the readiness of the staff to consider the diagnosis, the collection of blood specimens at appropriate times, and the preservation of sera at sub-freezing temperatures to permit survival of active virus and its subsequent recovery in an appropriate laboratory.
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Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. · Jan 1984
Epidemiological, clinical and therapeutic features of Bihar kala-azar (including post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis).
This epidemic of kala-azar in Bihar, India, started from a small block and gradually spread to almost all of North Bihar. Vaishali was the district most affected, with the highest incidence rate of 5.9 per thousand in 1978. The epidemic spread more to the east than to the west. ⋯ Side effects with sodium stibogluconate were minimal, but were common and serious with pentamidine. The need for a safer drug effective in cases which do not respond to antimony was very evident. 20 cases of post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) were reviewed: two had no previous previous history of kala-azar. The relapse rate was higher in PKDL than in kala-azar.
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Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. · Jan 1984
Distribution of Angiostrongylus cantonensis in Papua New Guinea.
Examination of 97 rats trapped in Port Moresby and Lae on the mainland of Papua New Guinea and in Rabaul, East New Britain Province, showed that 12.4% were infected by Angiostrongylus cantonensis. Larval An. cantonensis were found in Achatina fulica snails collected at these towns, from the Ramu Valley near Madang on the mainland and at locations in West New Britain, New Ireland and Bougainville Island. ⋯ Ach. fulica has not yet colonized the Highland region of Papua New Guinea and rats trapped in Goroka were free of infection. Human angiostrongyliasis has now been reported from Rabaul and studies have shown a high level of immunological responsiveness to the parasite in the sera of residents of East New Britain.