African health sciences
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African health sciences · Jun 2022
Use of exchange blood transfusion in the management of severe COVID-19 infection in pregnancy: experience from Lagos, Nigeria.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) presents with symptoms that may be mild or severe. The individual with the severe form of the disease usually presents with a constellation of respiratory symptoms typical of acute respiratory distress syndrome. In this report, we present our experience of the successful management of an oxygen-dependent pregnant woman with severe COVID-19 infection who had 2 sessions of partial exchange blood transfusion. We discussed the principles that informed this intervention and the need to adopt this novel approach in the care of severe COVID-19 infection.
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African health sciences · Jun 2022
Significant hyperbilirubinemia among well neonates due for discharge at Kawempe-Mulago Hospital, prevalence, factors associated, and accuracy of transcutaneous bilirubinometry for screening.
Neonates in low resource settings with a lack of pre-discharge screening and early intervention are at risk for complications associated with significant hyperbilirubinemia (SHB). ⋯ A significant number of well neonates have SHB. Transcutaneous bilirubinometry is a suitable screening tool in this setting. Early initiation of feeding should be promoted. The cause for high CRP among well neonates with SHB needs to be studied further.
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African health sciences · Jun 2022
Determinants of adolescent childbearing in Ethiopia, analysis of 2016 Ethiopian demographic and health survey: a case-control study.
Pregnancy and birth complications experienced by adolescents are also problems of older women. But it is severe among the young due to physical immaturity and social condemnation from basic reproductive health services. The study was aimed to analyze determinants of adolescent childbearing in Ethiopia using the Ethiopian demographic and health survey. ⋯ Place of residents, age, and timing of first sexual intercourse was found to be the influencing factors of adolescent childbearing. Our finding indicates that the place of residence of the adolescent mothers must be considered in planning policies that attempt to disrupt successive cycles of socioeconomic deprivation. Public health interventions should focus their programs to be based on community and aim on prevention of early sexual intercourse and marriage.
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African health sciences · Jun 2022
Perceived barriers and facilitators to antiretroviral therapy adherence among youth aged 15-24 years at a regional HIV clinic in SouthWestern Uganda: a qualitative study.
South-Western region has the second highest HIV prevalence in Uganda. Youth aged 15-24 have shown poor adherence to antiretroviral therapy compared to the older cohorts. Previous studies from other regions have shown various barriers and facilitators. Our study was designed to describe specific barriers and facilitators to treatment adherence among youths in a large regional HIV clinic in southwestern Uganda. ⋯ Youths aged 15-24 have challenges with ART associated treatment burden and fear to disclose their HIV status because of the resultant stigma from their communities. Many have however accepted the fact that HIV medications are lifesaving and are strongly motivated to adhere to their medications despite the circumstances.
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African health sciences · Jun 2022
Lack of FLT3-ITD in Tunisian childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
The fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) gene belong to the class III receptor tyrosine kinases witch is predominantly expressed on hematopoietic progenitor cells, and plays an important role in haematopoiesis. Targeting the FMS-like tyrosine kinase receptor-3 (FLT3) in acute leukemia is mainly important. Therefore, activating mutations in FLT3, primarily the FLT3-internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD), was used as a prognostic marker especially in myeloid leukemia; however, in ALL, the prognostic relevance of FLT3 mutations is less clear. ⋯ Our findings suggest that FLT3 mutations are not common in Tunisian childhood ALL and thus do not affect clinical outcome.