Prevalence

ABSTRACT The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of anaemia and malnutrition and some risk factors among hospitalized children attending Al-Nasser paediatric hospital. A cross-sectional study among hospitalized children attending Al-Nasser paediatrics hospital. The study included 522 children during the period May 2002 to May 2003. Data collection was through blood specimens, anthropometric indices and the questionnaire. The present study included 522 children attending AL-Nasser Paediatric Hospital with 334 males (64.0%) and 188 females (36.0%). Those children are distributed into three regions; the city 316 (60.5%), the camp 181 (34.7%) and village 25 (4.8%). The present study showed that 326 (62.5%) were anaemic, while 220/522 (42.1%) were underweight, stunting were 172/522 (32.9%) and wasting 140/522 (26.8%). The present study indicated that underweight and wasting were lower among males (38.6%), (20.0%) compared to females (48.4%), (38.8%) with a significance level (p=0.02, p=0.001). Palestinian children at high risk of anaemia and malnutrition. These two conditions should be considered by health authorities and urgent need for immediate intervention should be taken to minimize the consequences. Keywords: Anemia, Malnutrition, Prevalence, Gaza, Children

Despite the relatively frequent co-morbidity of depression and epilepsy and its negative consequences on the child’ quality of life, they are under-diagnosed and often go untreated. To explore the prevalence of depression among epileptic adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years and its possible determinants among them. A cross sectional study was carried out among epileptic adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years, of both sexes attended the Neurology clinics at Alhada Military Hospital, Taif city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia throughout 2016. Those with psychiatric history or on antidepressant medications were excluded from the study. The data were collected through an interview questionnaire including demographic characteristics of patients and epilepsy-related characteristics. Patients were identified by their medical record numbers. The patients` files were reviewed to complete their information required for the study through a checklist. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used for diagnosis of depression among the patients. The study included 84 patient with epilepsy. Their age ranged between 12 and 18 years with a mean of 15.5 years and SD of ±2.7 years. They were equally distributed regarding gender. Depression was reported among 89% of patients; it was mostly mild (43.9%) and moderate (30.5%). Moderately severe and severe forms were observed among 8.5% and 6.1% of patients, respectively. Most patients who had complications (80%) compared to 37.3% of those who hadn`t complications expressed moderate to severe depression, p=0.003. Also 73.3% of patients who didn`t show improvement with therapy compared to 37.7% of those showed improvement expressed moderate to severe depression, p=0.006. Other factors (demographic and epilepsy-related) were not significantly associated with depression and its severity among epileptic adolescents. Depression is a common psychological disorder among epileptic adolescents. It is more significantly reported among those with complications and not improved on medical therapy. Care should be paid to early diagnosis and proper management of depression among this population.

Malaria infection is responsible for high mortality rates in sub – Saharan Africa and this is partly caused by poor infrastructure especially for diagnosis in rural areas thereby making complying with the World Health Organization policy on proper malaria tests before treatment difficult. A cross – sectional study was conducted to evaluate the validity of presumptive diagnosis in malaria infections by comparing with microscopy and CareStart™ malaria HRP2/pLDH Pf Test kit (RDT). 1000 consenting study subjects in the Outpatient Department of Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH), Rivers State, Nigeria were sampled for malaria parasites from January 2014 to June 2016. Blood samples were gotten through venous procedure and analyzed for the presence of Plasmodium using Giemsa – microscopy and RDT kits while presumptive diagnosis (presence of fever) was determined by a Physician. All results were statistically analyzed and Giemsa – microscopy was used as the “Gold standard” for malaria diagnosis. Malaria prevalence rates of 32%, 32% and 15% were recorded for presumptive diagnosis, microscopy and RDT respectively (P<0.05). Fever had sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy values of 99%, 100% and 99.7% respectively while RDT had sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy values of 46%, 100% and 83% respectively when compared to Giemsa – microscopy. This study showed that RDT was not as sensitive as fever and microscopy in the detection of malaria but it can be used when microscopy is not available due to its high specificity and diagnostic accuracy. Although more research is needed in the validity of presumptive diagnosis as a reliable diagnostic technique, suspected cases of malaria infection based on presumptive diagnosis (presence of fever) by highly experienced physicians can be considered for malaria treatment especially in emergency situations and in malaria – endemic rural areas lacking well – equipped malaria diagnostic centres for laboratory diagnosis but all suspected malaria cases should be confirmed with proper laboratory diagnosis (if possible) to avoid malaria mis – diagnosis and parasite drug resistance by wrong administration of antimalarial.