Articles: disease.
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We report here on a child who over a period of 8 years was admitted several times to hospitals in different states of Nigeria based on fictitious illnesses described by his mother. The child had various unnecessary, expensive and invasive investigations followed by treatment with harmful drugs. The evolution of this case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy is described in order to alert paediatricians in developing countries to a problem which is described frequently in more affluent societies. We believe this is the first such case to be recorded in West Africa.
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Female sexual partners of injection drug users are at risk for AIDS because of their association with street drug cultures and all their concomitant risks, including their own non-injecting drug use. This study examines a model of the social determinants of HIV-associated sexual risk behaviors. ⋯ The findings show that crack cocaine use is the strongest contributor to the model, which explains fourteen percent of the variance of sexual risk behavior. The findings suggest that the risks associated with sexual practices are much greater for crack cocaine users than among non users of crack.
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Surveillance is the foundation of public health practice. This review examines the experience of surveillance in the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI). Surveillance systems include routine reporting, sentinel surveillance, and community-based reporting. ⋯ The surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases has evolved as programmes mature, to monitor progress towards disease control targets. The establishment of goals to reduce measles cases by 90%, eliminate neonatal tetanus, and eradicate poliomyelitis has put increased emphasis on the need for effective disease surveillance. This opportunity should be taken to promote strengthening of national routine systems for disease surveillance, to make them effective instruments for prevention and control of diseases of public health importance.
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Schriftenr Ver Wasser Boden Lufthyg · Jan 1993
ReviewReview: extraaural health effects of aircraft noise.
The number of aircraft movements in our society is increasing at a rapid rate. As a consequence the airspace is becoming more crowded, in particular in the vicinity of airports. As a consequence pollution (both air pollution and noise) near the airports increases. ⋯ Reading ability is hampered by noise. For the vegetative aspects, no clear and stable exposure-response relations are known at this moment. Hopefully this conference will fill in the gap.
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The heterosexual spread of HIV-1 is occurring at different rates in different parts of the world. The transmission probability of HIV-1 per sexual contact is low, but may be greatly enhanced by several cofactors. Sexually transmitted diseases (STD), especially genital ulcers, may be such factors. So far, epidemiological evidence that other STD facilitate HIV-1 transmission is weak. The objective of this study was to determine whether treatable STD enhanced sexual transmission of HIV-1 in a cohort of female prostitutes in Kinshasa, Zaire. ⋯ Non-ulcerative STD were risk factors for sexual transmission of HIV-1 in women, after controlling for sexual exposure. Because of their high prevalence in some populations, non-ulcerative STD may represent a considerable population-attributable risk in the transmission of HIV-1 worldwide. The identification of treatable STD as risk factors for HIV-1 transmission offers an important additional strategy for the prevention of HIV/AIDS.