Articles: disease.
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To determine risk factors and to identify groups at high risk of tuberculosis (TB) among South African gold miners. ⋯ A profile of mineworkers who are at high risk of TB can be defined by age, mining occupation, silicosis status, and HIV infection with predicted rates of 100/1000 person-years. TB screening programmes should take special cognisance of high risk groups of gold miners.
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A syndrome of severe anaemia (Hb < or = 5 g/dl), particularly severe malarial anaemia (SMA), remains a major cause of childhood mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. We hypothesized that the lactic acidosis which identifies those at the greatest risk of death often represents an oxygen debt incurred as a result of inadequate tissue perfusion. To examine this hypothesis, we measured oxygen consumption (VO2) using a portable metabolic monitor. ⋯ In four of the five with SMA, severe symptoms and severe lactic acidosis, transfusion produced a marked, transient increase in VO2 (maximum 30-41%), with a marked fall in blood lactate and clinical improvement. These data suggest that some children with SMA and respiratory distress accumulate an oxygen debt when a relatively high oxygen demand outstrips supply, this debt being repaid when supply is increased during transfusion. However, in the remaining one of these five children, an increase in VO2 (maximum 20%), was accompanied by a rise in blood lactate and clinical deterioration, suggesting that more pathophysiologically complex mechanisms, which may predominate in some children.
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Although tens of thousands of Salmonella infections occur annually in this country, most involve the gastrointestinal tract with involvement of the urinary tract being quite infrequent.1-3 I would like to report a case of urosepsis due to Salmonella with eventual development of metastatic osteomyelitis of a rib that proved refractory to treatment. A 59-year-old Latin American male who resided in the Texas Rio Grande Valley presented to an emergency room with inability to void, having first noted a decreased urinary stream and dribbling a few months earlier. In-and-out bladder catheterization yielded 700 cc of urine, and he was sent out on co-trimoxazole one double-strength tablet twice daily. ⋯ Forty-eight hours postoperatively, the patient suffered an acute myocardial infarction and expired. Postmortem revealed severe coronary artery disease. No additional focus of Salmonella infection was found.