East African medical journal
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Injuries--unintentional and intentional--include a wide range of conditions such as road traffic injuries, falls, burns, poisonings, and assaults. Worldwide, unintentional injury is the fifth most common cause of death, responsible for 5.2% of the total mortality. Rates are declining in industrialized countries, for example, in the US from 72/100,000/year around 1900 to 40 in 1982 and 30 in 1988. ⋯ This review concludes that in sub-Saharan Africa, injuries rank third behind diarrhoea and malaria at 40,000 episodes and 100 deaths per 100,000 population per year. Incidences are higher in males than in females, and the most common cause is fall, followed by road traffic injury, assault, burn and poisoning. Substantial reductions are possible through prevention programmes.
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The hospital records of 62 Zambian children with sickle cell anaemia (SCA) who died during a 3 year period (January 1987 to December 1989) at the Paediatric Wing of the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia, were reviewed retrospectively. The SCA patients accounted for 2.92 percent of the total admissions and the average case fatality was 6.61 percent of the total SCA admissions. ⋯ The common causes of death were infections (29.54%), vasoocclusive crises (22.72%) and splenic sequestration crises (20.45%). The problems of sub-Saharan Africa, like malaria, malnutrition and now the HIV infection also adde to the mortality (15.90%).
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Fifty three patients admitted for burn care during a 12 month period from September 1987 to August 1988 were prospectively studied. There were 36 males (60%) and 21 females (40%) with ages ranging from 3 months to 60 years. Children aged 0-4 constituted 40% but 32 (60%) were younger than 16 years. ⋯ Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus aureus were about same frequency. Duration of hospital stay ranged from 6 days to 300 days with a mean of 46.52 days. 8 patients absconded, two were transferred to a hospital near their home and 9 died, giving a mortality rate of 17%. Since burn injuries are largely preventable, it is important to define clearly the social, cultural and economic factors which contribute to burn causation in order to combat them effectively.
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We present the clinical course of four children involved in an outbreak of intravenous cannulae associated nosocomial septicaemia due to multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. The patients involved, two of whom died became bacteraemic within a three week period, and evidence for an environmental source of the organism was obtained.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of standard mercury thermometer and the liquid crystal device skin contact thermometer in febrile children at Eldoret District Hospital.
The purpose of this study was to compare the temperature readings obtained from febrile children using the conventional glass mercury thermometer and the liquid crystal device skin contact thermometer. 56 children with fever were studied irrespective of the cause. In 30 children, the mercury thermometer recorded higher readings than the LCD skin contact thermometer by an average of 0.67 degree C while in 12 children the LCD thermometer recorded higher readings than the mercury thermometer by an average of 0.34 degree C. There was no temperature reading difference in 14 children between the two methods. It is concluded that LCD thermometer is a useful, cost effective, safe and durable alternative to mercury thermometers especially in developing countries.