Articles: disease.
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Comparative Study
Mother-to-child transmission of HIV: implications of variation in maternal infectivity.
To examine the implications of variation in maternal infectivity on the timing of mother-to-child HIV transmission through breastfeeding. ⋯ Our model has helped identify a previously unrecognized determinant of the timing of breastfeeding-related HIV transmission, which may have adverse implications for the effectiveness of certain interventions to reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission such as maternal antiretroviral therapy in breastfeeding populations and the early cessation of breastfeeding.
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In reviewing the clinical features, diagnostic evaluations and therapies of the most common ocular viral infections we attempt to whet your appetite for attacking the numerous challenges in diagnosis and treatment of viral eye disease. The herpes viruses, HSV, VZV and CMV are the cause of significant ocular morbidity. HSV most commonly affects the cornea producing keratitis that can be recurrent and may lead to corneal clouding and neovascularisation. ⋯ Adenovirus produces an epidemic conjunctivitis and epidemic keratoconjunctivitis which are severe and extremely contagious conjunctival infections. HIV, molluscum contagiosum, EBV and rubeola also cause ocular diseases which are described. Copyright 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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So far, no-one has attempted to evaluate the overall balance of serious, but not necessarily fatal, disease among a cohort of oral contraceptive users. ⋯ Past users of older, higher dose oral contraceptives can be reassured that the small increased risk of serious disease seen during current use does not persist after stopping, and that latent effects do not appear later in life. Currently available oral contraceptives, containing less than 50 micrograms of oestrogen accompanied by the progestogen, levonorgestrel, or norethisterone acetate, do not appear to be associated with an increased net risk of serious disease.
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Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol · Oct 1998
Comparative StudyPostnatal depression and social supports in Vietnamese, Arabic and Anglo-Celtic mothers.
The significance of a western woman's social supports to postnatal depression is well documented. We examine which deficits in components of their social support network are associated with postnatal depression in women from a non-English-speaking background. The social support network and postnatal mood of 105 Anglo-Celtic, 113 Vietnamese and 98 Arabic women were assessed at 6 weeks postpartum. ⋯ For Vietnamese women, low postnatal mood was associated with poor quality of relationship with the partner and a perceived need for more practical help from him. For Arabic women, low postnatal mood was associated with perceived need for more emotional support from partners. We conclude that cultural factors mediate the relation between social supports and postnatal depression more likely to become clinically depressed (Lovestone and Kumar 1993) and infants may have adverse cognitive, behavioural and emotional outcomes, which can be linked to the postnatal depression (Murray and Cooper 1996).
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A number of studies have shown that glucose tolerance falls with decreasing birth weight and that people with low birth weight and high body mass index (BMI) as adults are those at greatest risk of developing Type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus. No such studies have been carried out in African populations. Therefore we investigated the relation between glucose tolerance and birth weight in a group of 7-year-old black South Africans for whom longitudinal anthropometric data were available. ⋯ Children born with low birth weights but who had high weights at 7 years had higher insulin concentrations and indices of obesity compared with those with low birth weights and low weights at 7 years. There were also positive correlations between weight velocity and BMI (r = 0.24, p = 0.02) and weight velocity and insulin resistance (r = 0.18, p = 0.04) as measured using homeostasis model assessment (HOMA). Thus, low birth weight in conjunction with rapid childhood gains in weight especially as subcutaneous fat, produces poor glucose tolerance in 7-year-old children and can make them susceptible to the development of Type II diabetes later in life.