Articles: health.
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A community based study was conducted on the understanding and knowledge of childhood diarrhoea and use of oral rehydration therapy (ORT), in four selected villages in Tumpat District, Kelantan. The calculated annual incidence of diarrhoeal disease in children aged 0 to four years in all study villages was 1.38 episodes for each child. The main care-givers of children aged 0 to four years were interviewed and asked to demonstrate how to mix a standard ORS (oral rehydration solution) sachet if they had previously used ORT. ⋯ Significantly more literate women had used ORT than those not literate (p = 0.002). Mothers, particularly those literate, are the primary target group for ORT intervention strategies. Components of health education should include advice on what ORS is, what it is used for, and how to correctly mix a standard sachet.
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This study defines the variables that predict rehospitalization of infants born to teen mothers. Rehospitalization was defined as hospital admission during the first year of life subsequent to hospitalization at birth. Normal birth weight (NBW), but not low birth weight (LBW), infants of adolescent mothers had higher rehospitalization rates than infants of older mothers. ⋯ Among infants of adolescent mothers, the variables associated with increased risk of rehospitalization were unemployed household head, presence of a congenital anomaly or developmental delay, and an unusually high or low number of well child care visits. Although individual variables were significant at the bivariate level, in combination, these variables were poor predictors of which infants would be rehospitalized. Our study suggests that all teen mothers of NBW infants may require additional education to prevent excess rehospitalization of their infants.
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Available data on the coverage of prenatal care in Latin America were reviewed. In recent years, only Bolivia had a coverage of prenatal care of less than 50 per cent. More than 90 per cent of pregnant women received prenatal care in Chile, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. ⋯ The rates of tetanus immunization are always lower than the rates of prenatal care attendance, except in Costa Rica. The rates of tetanus immunization was less than half as compared to the rates of prenatal care in Bolivia, Guatemala, and Peru. To improve the content of prenatal care should be an objective complementary to the increase of the number of attending women.
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In a study of 52 cases of neonatal tetanus admitted to Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesha, it was found that 17 (33%) of the babies were delivered to mothers who had received adequate tetanus toxoid immunization during pregnancy. The 17 babies were compared with the remaining 35 babies whose mothers had not received tetanus prophylaxis. ⋯ This report shows that neonatal tetanus can occur in babies of mothers who were immunized with tetanus toxoid during pregnancy. Maternal immunity may, however, improve the prognosis in such infants.