Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0024530 (malaria)
 44,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The effect of HIV-1 on other infectious diseases in Africa is an increasing public health concern. In this review, we describe the role that three major infectious diseases--malaria, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and tuberculosis--have had in the HIV-1 epidemic. The high prevalence of untreated STD infections has been a major factor facilitating the spread of HIV-1 in Africa; with the synergistic interaction between HIV-1 transmission and genital herpes being of special concern for control of both diseases. Increased susceptibility to tuberculosis after infection with HIV-1 has led to a rising incidence and threat of increased transmission of tuberculosis. Clinical malaria occurs with an increased frequency and severity in HIV-1-infected individuals, especially during pregnancy. As with tuberculosis, STDs, and other communicable HIV-1-associated diseases, the net effect of HIV-1 might include increased rates of malaria transmission across communities. In addition to enhancing access to HIV-1 prevention and care, public health surveillance and control programmes should be greatly intensified to cope with the new realities of infectious disease control in Africa.
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PMID:HIV-1/AIDS and the control of other infectious diseases in Africa. 1242 12

Maternity care should prevent mortality and improve women's health different interventions are required for prevention and improvement. Healthy pregnancies require well-nourished women, free of infectious diseases, and under treatment for chronic treatable diseases. obstetric emergencies, however, can occur among healthy women also. Management of obstetric emergencies means access for women in need; services should include the ability to cross-match and transfuse blood for hemorrhage, to perform caesareans for obstructed labor, to administer antibiotics for infection, and to treat eclampsia. Prevention of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies reduces obstetric complications. Prenatal care is supposed to improve the health of pregnant women and to prepare women and their care providers for emergencies. Improvement in health is related to monitoring nutrition, hemoglobin levels, micronutrients such as iodine, and weight gain. Malaria and other endemic diseases need to be screened and treated. Risk assessment as a screening tool may mislead and create a false sense of security. Sexually transmitted diseases must be screened and treated. Studies need to be conducted to ascertain cost-effectiveness of screening. Preparation for unexpected problems in delivery must include a plan for transport, clearance of permission from a husband, or care in a maternity waiting home. Postpartum care can be improved with careful compliance with aseptic procedures and monitoring of labor. Delivery facilities should include an operating room, anesthesia, blood, other IV fluids, and drugs. Speed and competence must be assured. Accessible care means defining problem areas and addressing short, medium, and long-term problems, and assessing causes within the social structure, community, health system, or hospital. Goals of interventions must be clearly defined, and the probable impact determined. Evaluations of interventions that have multiplied since the Safe Motherhood Initiative began can lead to sustainable, effective services.
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PMID:Maternal care goals: life and good health. 1228 3

A survey of reproductive health activities in 50 countries shows that 25% of family planning programs provided all types of reproductive health services: family planning or safe regulation of fertility, maternal health and nutrition, protection from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and reproductive rights. Integrated reproductive health services reduce duplication and the number of workers and facilities needed. A program providing postpartum care and family planning services in Honduras and Peru increased contraceptive prevalence and saved money. Yet, combining new health services into a family planning program may strengthen one component while hurting the other. Health planners need to reflect on how to integrate reproductive health activities. Family planning providers can screen for STDs, distribute condoms, maintain hygienic facilities, and guarantee that contraceptive services or procedures do not spread or exacerbate genital tract infections. A simple way is needed to evaluate their clients' STD risk, such as interviewing clients about symptoms. At some family planning clinics in Brazil, a cartoon soap opera helps clients in small groups discuss STDs. Family planning clients tend to be married women who generally are not a high risk group. Providers should not recommend a contraceptive method without first determining the client's STD risk. Clients should not choose a method without first considering their STD risk. Family planning prevents maternal deaths. For example, a community project in rural Bangladesh increased contraceptive prevalence, which in turn contributed to a 33% decrease in maternal mortality. Family planning caregivers can tell women about prenatal care, pregnancy complications, and the benefits of breast feeding, as well as provide them with iodine and iron supplements, tetanus toxoid, and malaria prophylaxis. They can counsel postpartum mothers about birth spacing methods (e.g., lactational amenorrhea method).
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PMID:Good reproductive health involves many services. 1229 Apr 67

The development of the Healthy Women Counseling Guide (HWCG) began with background research in Kenya, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Qualitative research methods were used, including focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, group discussions, narratives, case studies, and informal interviews. The research provided in-depth information upon the nature and extent of health and gender problems affecting rural women, as well as the various ways in which they respond to them. Ideas and suggestions were obtained on strategies to improve women's health, including community-based and gender-sensitive approaches. Results from the 3 studies highlighted the inequality in gender power relations which both compounds women's health problems and affects their health-seeking behavior. Among the many health problems facing women in the 3 countries, reproductive health issues such as STDs, HIV/AIDS, vesicovaginal fistulae, pregnancy and antenatal care, and malaria were chosen as priority health problems for the pilot project to develop communication materials. As a result of the research, it was decided to focus upon stories produced as radio tapes and illustrated materials in the further development of the HWCG. Community participation was central to the guide's development. The development of the communication material brought together specialists from various disciplines, including physicians, sociologists, radio producers, and illustrators.
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PMID:Healthy women counselling guide: update. 1229 4

Focus in this discussion of Bhutan is on the following: the history of the demographic situation; the government's overall approach to population problems; population data systems and development planning; institutional arrangements for the integration of population within development planning; the government's view of the importance of population policy in achieving development objectives; population size, growth, and natural increase; morbidity and mortality; fertility; international migration; and spatial distribution. Almost no demographic information was available in Bhutan until the 1st census was conducted in 1969, but the UN estimated the total population at 750,000 in 1950, increasing to 857,000 in 1960. The 1969 census placed the population at 939,774 and subsequently the population is estimated to have increased to 1.2 million by 1975. The government has not formulated an explicit, overall population policy, but it seeks to modify various demographic variables. The overall population size is considered inadequate to meet the labor force and development needs of the nation and efforts to control fertility are underway only in the few areas where population growth rates are relatively high. A formalized structure for the collection of population information and data has been established only recently. By 1975-80 the mortality rate is reported to have declined to 20.6/1000. Infant mortality declined from an estimated 210/1000 during 1950-55 to 167/1000 during 1970-75 and 156.3 by 1975-80. The main causes of death are believed to be gastrointestinal diseases and respiratory ailments, with a significant incidence of tuberculosis, malaria, goitre, and venereal disease. The government considers the situation with regard to morbidity and mortality to be unacceptable. The crude birthrate was estimated to reach a level of 41.3/1000 by the early 1980s. Despite the relatively high fertility levels, the government appears to consider these rates as satisfactory. The shortage of indigenous labor force and the sparse population in various regions are largely responsible for this perception. There is little emigration from the country and the government perceives the situation with regard to emigration as not significant and satisfactory. The level of immigration, although not exceedingly large in total numbers, is generally perceived to be significant and satisfactory in view of the current economic and manpower needs of the country. The population is unevenly distributed over more than 4500 settlements with the distribution closely following the character of the terrain, climatic conditions, and land productivity. The government perceives the spatial distribution of the population as inappropriate, especially in terms of the development needs of the country.
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PMID:Bhutan. 1231 44

In this paper, the etiological factors affecting infertility among the Azande tribe of Central Africa are reviewed. Of those factors reviewed, including venereal disease, leprosy, sleeping sickness, endemic goitre, nutrition, voluntary contraception, and malaria none is sufficient to account for a lowering in the fertility rate. The data collected is estimated to be accurate but very limited. The author, however, concludes that there is 1) a low child/adult ratio; 2) a marked female preponderance; and 3) a high infant and child mortality rate. Finally, the people of the tribe are reproducing themselves, though not so prolifically as their former preponderance in this region, or comparison with fertility levels in neighboring tribes, would lead one to expect.
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PMID:Dearth of children among the Azande: preliminary report. 1233 86

In order to have a rational approach to necessary preventive measures it is essential to know the health risks. The 80 million travellers each year with destinations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Pacific Islands and remote areas in Eastern Europe are exposed to a broad range of pathogens that are rarely encountered at home. The risk depends on the degree of endemicity in the area visited, the duration of stay, the individual behaviour and the preventive measures taken. Travellers' diarrhoea (TD) is the most frequent ailment of visitors to countries with poor hygiene. The incidence rate is 25-90% in the first 2 weeks abroad. The risk of TD is far less in travellers originating in a high risk country, as some immunity develops. Malaria is an important risk for travellers going to endemic areas. Without chemoprophylaxis, the monthly incidence is high in some destinations, among them frequently visited tropical Africa where 80-95% of the infections are due to Plasmodium falciparum. The incidence rates are lower in most endemic areas of Asia and Latin America where Plasmodium vivax predominates. The risk is nil in all capital cities of South America and SE Asia, as well as in many frequently visited tourist destinations. The diseases preventable by immunization will be discussed in a separate paper (Vaccination priorities; page 175). Sexually transmitted diseases occur frequently, as some travellers (5% of Europeans) engage in casual sex, approximately half of them without being protected by a condom. The prevalence for HIV-infection, syphilis, gonorrhoea, etc. often exceeds 50% in prostitutes. In some European countries, a major proportion of heterosexuals with newly acquired HIV-infection have acquired it while abroad.
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PMID:Travel epidemiology--a global perspective. 1261 69

Developing countries need to balance resources for treatment and prevention. In Southern Africa, only 100,000 out of 4.1 million people who need HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral therapy (ART) are able to access it. The drop in the price of ART has led to opportunities to increase the numbers receiving treatment, but problems remain. Increasing health service focus on HIV might poach staff and resource from other important programs like TB, malaria or child health. It depends on good organisation and laboratory support. It may medicalise the epidemic and distract attention from the need for education and prevention. There is now good evidence that preventive strategies, including STD treatment, improved practices of blood transfusion and needle use, use of drugs to prevent mother child transmission, voluntary counselling and testing, increased condom availability and behaviour change are very effective in reducing spread. It is obvious that both treatment and prevention strategies are necessary. International aid is still inadequate. The European Union spends 50 billion dollars on agricultural subsidies, but donates only 140 million dollars for HIV in Africa. As funding increases, it is vital that it is well used and reaches the people who need it most.
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PMID:Reframing the HIV/AIDS debate in developing countries III: an effective, equitable response. 1588 2

Although it has been widely argued that pre-Enlightenment western medicine ascribed to a one-sex (male) model of the body, this theory has never been evaluated in terms of medical practice. This article seeks to determine the usefulness of such a model for early modern Britain, circa 1600-1740, by examining how medical practitioners responded to three common illnesses that afflicted both male and female patients: venereal disease, smallpox, and malaria. It concludes that, despite a number of similarities, medical treatment of such illnesses was marked by important differences which were based upon the sex of the patient. Due to its unique physiological functions (vaginal discharge, menstruation, pregnancy, and lactation), the female body was considered by practitioners to be capable of manifesting, transmitting, and responding to disease and treatment in ways that the male body could not. This awareness provided practitioners with additional reasons to monitor, and alter, medical treatment in their female patients. In fact, the different constitutions of men and women meant that the patient body was much more complex than the theory of a one-sex model suggests. Furthermore, differences in medical treatment were influenced by age, a variable which was inexorably linked to physiological changes in the 'sexed' body.
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PMID:The medical practice of the sexed body: women, men and disease in Britain , circa 1600-1740. 1598 80

To determine factors associated with fetal growth, preterm delivery and stillbirth in an area of high malaria transmission in Southern Malawi, a cross-sectional study of pregnant women attending and delivering at two study hospitals was undertaken. A total of 243 (17.3%) babies were preterm and 54 (3.7%) stillborn. Intra-uterine growth retardation (IUGR) occurred in 285 (20.3%), of whom 109 (38.2%) were low birthweight and 26 (9.1%) preterm. Factors associated with IUGR were maternal short stature [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.6, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0-2.5]; primigravidae (AOR 1.9, 95% CI 1.4-2.7); placental or peripheral malaria at delivery (AOR 1.4, 95% CI 1.0-1.9) and maternal anaemia at recruitment (Hb<8 g/dl) (AOR 1.9, 95% CI 1.3-2.7). Increasing parasite density in the placenta was associated with both IUGR (P=0.008) and prematurity (P=0.02). Factors associated with disproportionate fetal growth were maternal malnutrition [mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC)<23 cm, AOR 1.9, 95% CI 1.0-3.7] and primigravidae (AOR 1.8, 95% CI 1.0-3.1). Preterm delivery and stillbirth were associated with <5 antenatal care visits (AOR 2.2, 95% CI 1.3-3.7 and AOR 3.1, 95% CI 1.4-7.0 respectively) and stillbirth with a positive Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test (AOR 4.7, 95% CI 1.5-14.8). Interventions to reduce poor pregnancy outcomes must reduce the burden of malaria in pregnancy, improve antenatal care and maternal malnutrition.
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PMID:Adverse birth outcomes in a malarious area. 1625 32


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