Articles: disease.
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To identify ways to improve the operation of blood-screening programs and to decrease the inappropriate use of blood by evaluating blood-transfusion practices and blood-banking services in a Kenyan hospital. ⋯ Improved laboratory services, reduction of unnecessary transfusions, and increased recruitment of volunteer donors are critical for improving the appropriate and timely use of blood and reducing transfusion-associated HIV transmission.
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An outline is given of a field research study to be undertaken in Malawi to investigate the pattern and consequences of malaria in pregnancy and infants. The central question to be investigated is whether babies born to anaemic mothers in malarious areas are at increased risk of developing anaemia or altered risk for morbidity from malaria or develop anaemia in the first year of life. The framework for the case control and cohort study to be undertaken is outlined.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Meta Analysis Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Another look at the Dalkon Shield: meta-analysis underscores its problems.
Numerous non-comparative clinical trials of the Dalkon Shield appear to provide ample evidence that the Dalkon Shield was an effective IUD; they seem to yield little evidence that it was a dangerous device, nor markedly different from its contemporaries. Equating the performance of the Dalkon Shield IUD to that of the Lippes Loop or of Copper IUDs is erroneous, however, with respect to rates of pregnancy, expulsion, pelvic infection, septic abortion, death with the device in situ, and tubal infertility. Randomized studies show the Dalkon Shield had approximately double the pregnancy rates of the Lippes Loop D or Copper IUDs (P < .05) and a significantly lower expulsion rate. ⋯ A five-fold increased risk of hospitalized pelvic infection among Dalkon Shield users found in the Women's Health Study resulted not from ascertainment bias, but was related to the fact that Dalkon Shield users had more severe hospitalized PID than did other hospitalized women with PID and IUD use. Following cessation of distribution and of use of the Dalkon Shield, and following the FDA's recommendation to remove IUDs in case of pregnancy, there have been no deaths reported among pregnant American women with an IUD in situ in a 15-year period. Neither the IUDs of today nor those in use during 1970-1974 are equitable to the Dalkon Shield [corrected].