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Selected AbstractsSurveillance of vivax malaria vectors and civilian patients for malaria high-risk areas in northern Gyeonggi and Gangwon Provinces near the demilitarized zone, Republic of Korea, 2003,2006ENTOMOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2010Jae Chul SHIM Abstract After re-emergence of malaria in 1993, a continued increase in Plasmodium vivax cases was observed from 1993 to 2006 in northern Gyeonggi and Gangwon Provinces adjacent to the demilitarized zone separating North from South Korea. Annual parasite incidence per 1000 people ranged from 0.33 in 2004 to 0.89 in 2006. While malaria case rates declined (22.6%) in 2004, they increased 75.1% in 2005 and 51.7% in 2006 from the previous years. An initial incorrect diagnosis of 46.8% of malaria cases as common cold resulted in a mean delay of 1.3 days for the detection malarial parasites. Of the total cases, 10.2% from December to May were due to latent intrinsic incubation infections acquired the previous malaria season and the rest of the cases from June to November were either latent or short incubation infections. Overall, the peak anopheline population occurred from July to September, resulting in a similar peak in malaria cases. While malaria cases increased during 2005,2006, anopheline populations, based on trap indices, were not significantly different during 4 years of surveillance. To decrease the malaria patient infective period to mosquitoes, public health centers in Paju and Cheorwon in 2006 prescribed chloroquine + primaquine at days 0,3 after initial malaria diagnosis followed by an additional 11 days of primaquine (early primaquine treatment), rather than chloroquine on days 0,3 and primaquine on days 4,17 (delayed primaquine treatment). A reduction in the malaria parasite incidence during 2007 was recorded for the two locations offering the early primaquine treatment relative to other locations using the delayed primaquine treatment. [source] Five-year longitudinal predictive factors for disordered eating in a population-based sample of overweight adolescents: Implications for prevention and treatmentINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EATING DISORDERS, Issue 7 2009Dianne Neumark-Sztainer PhD Abstract Objective The objective of this study is to identify predictors of prevalence and incidence of disordered eating (binge eating and extreme weight control behaviors) among overweight adolescents. Method Five-year longitudinal associations were examined in 412 overweight adolescents who participated in Project EAT-I and II. Results Among both overweight males and females, risk factors for disordered eating included exposure to weight loss magazine articles, higher weight importance, and unhealthy weight control behaviors, while family connectedness, body satisfaction, and regular meals were protective factors, although there were some differences in predictors of prevalence (total cases) versus incidence (new cases) of disordered eating. Among males, poor eating patterns, including fast food and sweetened beverage intake, increased risk for disordered eating, and the use of healthy weight control behaviors was protective. Discussion Attention should be directed toward decreasing disordered eating among overweight adolescents. Findings suggest the importance of promoting positive family relationships, psychological health, and regular meals, and steering adolescents away from overemphasizing weight and using unhealthy weight control behaviors. © 2009 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 2009 [source] Pure neural leprosy: Diagnostic value of the polymerase chain reactionMUSCLE AND NERVE, Issue 3 2006Francisco M. Bezerra Da Cunha MD Abstract Pure neural leprosy (PNL) is often difficult to diagnose when acid-fast bacilli (AFB) cannot be detected. We undertook the present study to evaluate use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in diagnosing PNL. Fifty-eight patients (41 men and 17 women) suspected of pure neural leprosy (PNL) were examined. Patients were classified as borderline tuberculoid (BT, 40 cases) and polar tuberculoid (TT, 18 cases) types. Nerve biopsy was performed and was positive for AFB in 20 patients (all BT patients), i.e., 34.5% of total cases. DNA was extracted from the nerve biopsy samples and amplified using PCR for a specific repeated sequence of DNA from Mycobacterium leprae. PCR analysis was positive in the nerve samples from 29 patients (50%), 27 of the BT type, and 2 of the TT type patients. Further, PCR analysis was positive in 14 of 38 cases that were negative for AFB by nerve biopsy, of which 12 were of the BT type and 2 the TT type. PCR analysis proved to be a useful method to investigate pure neural leprosy, enabling confirmation of the diagnosis in more than a third of the cases that were negative for AFB by nerve biopsy. Muscle Nerve 2006 [source] Characteristics of occupational burns in Oregon, 2001,2006AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 5 2009Jaime K. Walters MPH Abstract Background Occupational burns are known to be a serious public health concern. This article describes work-related burns in Oregon between 2001 and 2006. Methods Oregon Workers' Compensation (WC) burn claims were analyzed; data from a commercial insurance carrier (CIC) was used to characterize non-disabling burn claims. To ensure that our primary data source (WC) captures as many burn cases as possible, we compared hospitalized cases to a regional burn center (RBC) and Oregon hospital discharge index (HDI) data. Results The WC burn injury rate ranged from a high of 1.8 per 10,000 workers in 2001 to a low of 1.4 per 10,000 in 2004. We identified 2,165 accepted burn claims in CIC data, of which 85% were non-disabling. We matched data from a regional burn center to a subset of hospitalized claims from WC data and found an additional 44 cases of occupational hospitalized burns representing a 3% increase in total cases captured. Conclusions Occupational burns continue to be a problem for working Oregonians, and the use of additional data sources outside of WC augments our surveillance system. Am. J. Ind. Med. 52:380,390, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The reliability of information on work-related injuries available from hospitalisation data in AustraliaAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 4 2009Kirsten McKenzie Abstract Objective: To examine the reliability of work-related activity coding for injury-related hospitalisations in Australia. Method: A random sample of 4,373 injury-related hospital separations from 1 July 2002 to 30 June 2004 were obtained from a stratified random sample of 50 hospitals across four states in Australia. From this sample, cases were identified as work-related if they contained an ICD-10-AM work-related activity code (U73) allocated by either: (i) the original coder; (ii) an independent auditor, blinded to the original code; or (iii) a research assistant, blinded to both the original and auditor codes, who reviewed narrative text extracted from the medical record. The concordance of activity coding and number of cases identified as work-related using each method were compared. Results: Of the 4,373 cases sampled, 318 cases were identified as being work-related using any of the three methods for identification. The original coder identified 217 and the auditor identified 266 work-related cases (68.2% and 83.6% of the total cases identified, respectively). Around 10% of cases were only identified through the text description review. The original coder and auditor agreed on the assignment of work-relatedness for 68.9% of cases. Conclusions and implications: The best estimates of the frequency of hospital admissions for occupational injury underestimate the burden by around 32%. This is a substantial underestimate that has major implications for public policy, and highlights the need for further work on improving the quality and completeness of routine, administrative data sources for a more complete identification of work-related injuries. [source] Prevalence and causes of visual impairment in a rural North-east China adult population: a population-based survey in Bin County, HarbinACTA OPHTHALMOLOGICA, Issue 6 2010Wulian Song Acta Ophthalmol. 2010: 88: 669,674 Abstract. Purpose:, To investigate the prevalence and causes of visual impairment in a rural population in north-east China. Methods:, A population-based study was conducted within Bin County, Harbin of north-east China. Low vision and blindness were defined using the World Health Organization categories of visual impairment. The prevalence of visual impairment was estimated, and causes were identified based on best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) as well as presenting visual acuity (VA). Results:, Out of 5764 people, 4956 (86.01%) aged older than 40 participated in the study. The prevalence of visual impairment, low vision and blindness based on presenting VA was 9.6% (BCVA, 6.6%), 7.7% (BCVA, 4.9%) and 1.9% (BCVA, 1.7%), respectively. Taking the presenting VA, cataract (44%) was the most common cause for visual impairment followed by uncorrected refractive error (24%), treatable causes of visual impairment accounted for 68% of the total cases. Cataract (59%) and glaucoma (15%) were leading causes for blindness based on presenting VA. According to BCVA, cataract was the leading cause of visual impairment and blindness (58% and 60%, respectively), followed by glaucoma (17% and 15%, respectively). The prevalence of visual impairment was higher among women than men (p < 0.0001) and increasing with age (p < 0.0001) and decreasing with increasing education level (p = 0.0075). Conclusion:, Visual impairment was a serious public health problem in this rural population, with most of it easily remedied. Results highlighted the need for visual impairment prevention programs to an increasing number of elderly people, with a special emphasis on female and those with little or no education. [source] | ||||||||||