East African medical journal
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A 9-year survey on tuberculosis control at Sololo General Hospital (Marsabit District) is presented. 700 patients were treated and followed up from 1982 to 1990. The paper deals with the major constraints of TB control in a nomadic population on the borderland with Ethiopia; it highlights the need of the short course regimen and the TB manyatta programme to increase the percentage of cured patients.
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Hunger and malnutrition in Africa have been on the increase since 1960's reaching a climax in the 1980's when over 150 million people were affected by one form or another. Methods so far used to solve the problem do not seem to succeed, but the scientists and leaders in Africa could now take the opportunity to consider and act on the problem in their own way. The formation of an African food and nutrition group to work with others on the problems, could give an impetus to this kind of initiative. A call is made to all African food and nutrition workers to combine efforts to harness Africa resources, which have not been fully utilized in solving the problem.
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In a study of 7,631 cases referred to the infectious diseases hospital, Nairobi with a diagnosis of measles, 7,447 cases had the diagnosis confirmed. The overall mortality was 17.5 per 1000 cases with 43.51 of all the deaths occurring in all children less than 12 months of age. A nutritional analysis revealed that children whose weight were below 80 of the Harvard median of weight for age stayed in hospital longest and had the highest mortality rate. Measles continues to offer increasing challenge in spite of the intensive vaccination programme presently being carried out.