Anthropometric measurements of children attending a vaccination clinic in Yaounde, Cameroon

Background

Growth faltering is a frequent public health problem in children and anthropometric measurements are useful tools for follow-up and early diagnosis. This problem has not been studied in the Cameroonian setting, that''s why we undertook this study.

Objectives

To have a synopsis of the nutritional status in apparently healthy children attending a vaccination clinic and show the importance of anthropometric measurements in routine child health care.

Design

A retrospective study.

Patients and Participants

1351 children aged (6–24months), who attended the vaccination clinic of the Yaounde Gynaeco-Obstetric and Pediatric Hospital over a 6 month period, were enrolled in the study.

Method

The registers of the vaccination clinic of the above hospital were retrospectively reviewed from 1^st March to 31^st August 2005. The following parameters were noted: age, height, weight, mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), and Z scores calculated for the following indicators: weight for age (WAZ), weight for height (WHZ), and height for age (HAZ).

Results

Our results show that 12 children (1.1percent) in the 0–6 months age group and 4 (1.6 percent) in the 6–12 months age group had WAZ less than -2 indicating underweight. Also 10 children (0.9 percent) and 2 (0.8 percent) in the 0–6 and 6–12 months age groups respectively had WHZ less than −2, indicating wasting. HAZ was less than −2 in 70 children (6.4 percent) and in 8 (3.2 percent) in the 0–6 and 6–12 months age groups respectively indicating stunting. The MUAC was less than 12.5 cm in 6 children (2.4 percent).

Conclusions

From our results, we conclude that growth faltering is common in supposedly healthy children attending our vaccination clinic. Anthropometric measurements are thus recommended and should be encouraged in routine child care settings for early diagnosis of growth retardation and to provide useful interventions.     

Current thinking on chronic renal allograft rejection: issues, concerns, and recommendations from a 1997 roundtable discussion

Chronic rejection accounts for most renal allograft losses after the first year posttransplantation. On March 24 and 25, 1997, a roundtable of five transplant surgeons, two nephrologists, and one pathologist assembled in Dallas, Texas, to review critical issues surrounding chronic renal allograft rejection. This article summarizes the presentations and relevant discussions of this meeting regarding the cause of chronic rejection, clinical diagnoses, risk factors, future prospects for intervention strategies, and general recommendations for the transplant community. Growing evidence indicates that chronic rejection is the aggregate sum of irreversible immunologic and nonimmunologic injuries to the renal graft over time. A history of acute rejection episodes and inadequate immunosuppression, likely attributable to inconsistent cyclosporine exposure or poor patient compliance, are among the most recognizable immunologic risk factors for chronic rejection. Donor organ quality, delayed graft function, and other donor and recipient variables leading to reduced nephron mass are nonimmunologic factors that contribute to the progressive deterioration of renal graft function. Clinical management of renal transplant recipients should incorporate both immunologic- and nonimmunologic-based intervention strategies aimed at minimizing risk factors to thwart the progression of chronic rejection and improve long-term allograft and patient survival.     

Accuracy of Self-reported Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Status Among Gay and Bisexual Adolescent Males: Cross-sectional Study

BackgroundMen who have sex with men are a risk group for anal human papillomavirus (HPV) and anal cancer. Australia introduced a universal school-based HPV vaccination program in 2013. Self-reported HPV vaccination status has been widely used in clinical and research settings, but its accuracy is understudied.ObjectiveWe aimed to examine the accuracy of self-reported HPV vaccination status among gay and bisexual adolescent males.MethodsWe included 192 gay and bisexual males aged 16-20 years from the Human Papillomavirus in Young People Epidemiological Research 2 (HYPER2) study in Melbourne, Australia. All participants had been eligible for the universal school-based HPV vaccination program implemented in 2013 and were asked to self-report their HPV vaccination status. Written informed consent was obtained to verify their HPV vaccination status using records at the National HPV Vaccination Program Register and the Australian Immunisation Register. We calculated the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of self-reported HPV vaccination status.ResultsThe median age of the 192 males was 19 (IQR 18-20) years. There were 128 males (67%) who had HPV vaccination records documented on either registry. Self-reported HPV vaccination had a sensitivity of 47.7% (95% CI 38.8%-56.7%; 61/128), a specificity of 85.9% (95% CI 75.0%-93.4%; 55/64), a positive predictive value of 87.1% (95% CI 77.0%-93.9%; 61/70), and a negative predictive value of 45.1% (95% CI 36.1%-54.3%; 55/122).ConclusionsSelf-reported HPV vaccination status among Australian gay and bisexual adolescent males underestimates actual vaccination and may be inaccurate for clinical and research purposes.     

Criteria for EASO-collaborating centres for obesity management

Obesity is recognised as a global epidemic and the most prevalent metabolic disease world-wide. Specialised obesity services, however, are not widely available in Europe, and obesity care can vary enormously across European regions. The European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO, www.easo.org) has developed these criteria to form a pan-European network of accredited EASO-Collaborating Centres for Obesity Management (EASO-COMs) in accordance with accepted European and academic guidelines. This network will include university, public and private clinics and will ensure that the obese and overweight patient is managed by a holistic team of specialists and receives comprehensive state-ofthe-art clinical care. Furthermore, the participating centres, under the umbrella of EASO, will work closely for quality control, data collection, and analysis as well as for education and research for the advancement of obesity care and obesity science.     

Effect of cefuroxime and moxifloxacin on Staphylococcus epidermidis adherence to intraocular lenses

Objective: To investigate and compare the effect of cefuroxime and moxifloxacin on adhesion of Staphylococcus epidermidis to intraocular lenses (IOLs).Design: Experimental studyMethods: The 3-pieced hydrophobic acrylic lenses were contaminated with S. epidermidis (American Type Culture Collection 35983) solutions containing 10⁸ colony-forming units. IOLs were inoculated into test tubes containing tryptic soy broth after being held in antibiotic solutions for 15 minutes. Sonication and vortex procedures were performed in order to remove all the remaining bacteria. From each tube 10 μL and 100 μL was taken and inoculated into sheep blood agar. The colonies were counted overnight. The statistical analyses were made using oneway ANOVA, Tukey Honestly Significant Differences test (HSD) and independent t tests, and a p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Overall, the mean numbers of colony-forming units on the lenses that were held in control, cefuroxime, moxifloxacin 0.5 mg/0.1 mL and moxifloxacin 0.1 mg/0.1 mL solutions were 1398 (SE 10.01 × 10³), 29.9 (SE 1.16 × 10³), 0.23 (SD 0.04 × 10³), and 0.41 (SD 0.05 × 10³), respectively. The evaluation using one-way ANOVA and Tukey HSD tests revealed significant statistical differences among the groups (p = 0.000).The evaluation using independent t tests revealed significant statistical differences between the 2 moxifloxacin groups (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Our results suggest that moxifloxacin and cefuroxime significantly inhibit bacterial adherence to IOLs. The effect of moxifloxacin on inhibition of bacterial adherence was significantly greater than that of cefuroxime. For this reason moxifloxacin might be considered as a better prophylactic agent.