Articles: disease.
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The prevalence of visual defects, especially from causes associated with nutritional deficiencies, and their relation to diarrhoea in rural Bangladesh have been studied. A trained physician and a team of health workers examined visual defects in 149 villages, with a total population of 182 976. According to WHO classification, night blindness (XN) was found in only 0.03 persons/1000 population and 0.04 were found to have conjunctival xerosis (XIA) and Bitot's spot (XIB). ⋯ History of night blindness is a good indicator of vitamin A deficiency. In 96% of cases, night blindness was associated with conjunctival xerosis and Bitot's spot (XN + XIA + XIB). The onset of approximately 86% of cases of corneal xerosis (X2, X3A, X3B) and night blindness associated with conjunctival xerosis and Bitot's spot (XN + XIA + XIB) was related to diarrhoea.
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Abnormal vaginal bleeding in the teenage years usually has nonorganic causes; however, a careful elimination of organic causes is necessary before the diagnosis of dysfunctional uterine bleeding is made. The differential diagnosis in the case of such a complaint and a management plan are discussed.
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Fertility and sterility · Jun 1984
Comparative StudySex hormone profiles in oligomenorrheic adolescent girls and the effect of oral contraceptives.
The hormonal profiles and the effect of oral contraceptives (OCs) on 16 oligomenorrheic and 10 regularly menstruating adolescent girls were studied. Testosterone, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone, estradiol, progesterone, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, prolactin, and sex-hormone-binding globulin were determined on blood samples obtained during a control cycle, during OC treatment, and during the follow-up cycle after discontinuation of OC use. The oligomenorrheic girls had significantly higher concentrations of androstenedione and total and free testosterone than regularly menstruating girls during the control cycle. ⋯ For 2 to 4 weeks after treatment the oligomenorrheic girls had significantly lower levels of androstenedione, total and free testosterone, and luteinizing hormone than before treatment. In the control group there were no significant differences between pretreatment and posttreatment hormone concentrations. The risks and benefits of prescribing OCs for oligomenorrheic adolescent girls are discussed.
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The meaning of eradication, which is an irreversible conclusion, is considered primarily to distinguish it from elimination, which is reversible from outside the area. Poliomyelitis and measles are at present the diseases for which conditions most favor an attempt to produce eradication. Poliomyelitis has now reached a frequency in the developing world as high as it was in the prevaccine era of the United States. ⋯ Following determined efforts to achieve immunization of at least 95% of the population, the United States is now nearing the state of complete freedom from the transmission of measles virus. The use of diploid cells for making vaccine has enabled the virus to be given as an aerosol to babies less than six months of age and would be of particular value in developing countries. The high transmissibility of measles makes a severe demand for vaccine, but so long as the uptake of vaccine reaches at least 90%, the successful elimination of measles is extremely probable.