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Query: UMLS:C0024530 (malaria)
 44,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Kinetics of serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) were studied in patients with acute Plasmodium falciparum malaria in relation to vitamin A and its binding proteins, retinol binding protein (RBP) and pre-albumin. It was found that IL-6 levels followed the rise and decrease of parasitaemia by 12 hr and correlated inversely with levels of vitamin A and its binding proteins. These data suggest that vitamin A supplementation alone might still be insufficient to restore a malaria-induced vitamin A deficiency.
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PMID:The role of interleukin-6 in vitamin A deficiency during Plasmodium falciparum malaria and possible consequences for vitamin A supplementation. 157 2

Plasma retinol and 5 carotenes were assayed by high performance liquid chromatography in Thai rural and urban malaria patients and matched control subjects. Plasma retinol was lower in the rural than in the urban controls and both groups of malaria patients had lower serum retinol concentrations than their respective controls. 29% (6/21) of the rural patients were biochemically deficient in retinol (less than or equal to 0.35 mumol/litre), suggesting severely depleted liver stores of vitamin A. The carotene data suggest that the intake of total carotenoids may be 50 to 100% greater than in the UK and that a much higher proportion of dietary beta-carotene is converted to vitamin A than in British adults. The concentrations of non-pro-vitamin A carotenoids in both groups of malaria patients were not compatible with vitamin A deficiency. The differences between patient and control median concentrations of pro-vitamin A (PVA) carotenoids were greater than those of non-PVA carotenoids, suggesting increased utilization of vitamin A in malaria. There was no evidence of clinical vitamin A deficiency in either of the communities studied; therefore, severely depleted stores of retinol are very unlikely. There is an alternative explanation for low plasma retinol levels in malaria patients because retinol is bound to the negative acute phase proteins, retinol binding protein and transthyretin. We suggest that the behaviour of retinol during infection indicates a rapid distribution into extravascular fluids and an increased availability to the tissues; i.e., it may be another beneficial effect of the acute phase response.
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PMID:The acute phase response and vitamin A status in malaria. 190 68

Measurement of peroxyl-radical trapping capacity (TRAP) were made in plasma from patients with malaria from a rural and an urban Thai community. The results were compared with those from control subjects living in the same areas and chosen to match the patients closely. Measurements were also made of various antioxidants including nutritional indices vitamin C and alpha-tocopherol and the non-nutritional indices urate and protein-sulphydryl. Parasite counts, temperature on examination and the duration of illness were recorded together with measurements of plasma caeruloplasmin (EC 1.16.3.1), retinol and malondialdehyde (MDA). In general, most measurements made in the villagers were lower than those in the comparable urban groups. The exceptions were caeruloplasmin and MDA when the latter was expressed as MDA:cholesterol ratio. TRAP values were extremely low in 50% of the villagers and 25% of the urban patients with malaria and these results correlated with retinol and vitamin C and inversely with malonaldehyde. The results suggested that low TRAP values are associated with lipid peroxidation and that vitamin C and possibly retinol may be destroyed by the oxidative conditions present in the plasma in this disease.
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PMID:Influence of malaria infection on peroxyl-radical trapping capacity in plasma from rural and urban Thai adults. 220 93

This overview of health programs and conditions in India reveals that health is related to economic development antipoverty measures, food production and distribution, drinking water supply, sanitation, housing, environmental protection, and education. There are urgent requirements for effective intersectorial coordination. Unprecedented growth of 1 million a year has resulted in slums and shanties--a place of epidemics; urbanization has contributed to environmental pollution impacting on health, and water pollution to water-born diseases. Health services are still insufficient to meet the needs. Sanitation practices contribute to cholera, dysentery, diarrhea, enteric fevers, and malaria. Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy must be active in preventive and health care. Accomplishments include in 1987/8 a decline in leprosy cases attributed to the existence of leprosy control units. 40 AIDS Surveillance Units are actively treating and screening. The Naval Goitre Control Programme's goal is replacement of iodized salt for edible salt by 1992, thereby reducing mental retardation and low birth weight babies. The Family Welfare Programme, targets a New Production Rate of Unity before 2000. A National Technology Mission on immunization and the Universal Immunization Programme plans to be operational in all districts by 1990. Oral rehydration therapy programs dispense free packets to fill the needs of 1 million children under 5 who suffer from diarrhea 3 times a year with 3 million facing death. The Primary Health Care Programme provides iron and folic acid to women with nutritional anemia and Vitamin A to children. Health service developments have been increased.
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PMID:Status of health in India and its future prospects. 226 69

The vitamin A status of 454 pre-school age Congolese children was evaluated by the impression cytology method with transfer (ICT) and by the determination of plasma retinol. The absence of goblet cells and the presence of enlarged epithelial cells indicate a peripheral deficit of vitamin A. A level of plasma retinol lower than 10 micrograms/dl is an indicator of vitamin A deficiency. The subjects were children in good health or suffering from malaria, measles or various infectious diseases. Advantages, disadvantages, sensitivity and specificity of the ICT are discussed. We suggest its use in a mass screening program for vitamin A deficiency in developing countries.
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PMID:Vitamin A deficiency in pre-school age Congolese children during malarial attacks. Part 1: Utilisation of the impression cytology with transfer in an equatorial country. 227 77

It has been claimed that vitamin A deficiency increases the severity of malarial infection in rats. We measured parasitemia, mortality, serum retinol, liver retinol, spleen weight, and degree of xerophthalmia in vitamin A-deficient rats (A-), pair-fed control rats (A+PF), and ad libitum-fed control rats (A+AL) infected with Plasmodium berghei, a rodent malarial parasite. In experiments 1 and 2 vitamin A deprivation began at weaning. Parasitemia and mortality among mildly deficient (expt. 1, mean serum retinol 19 micrograms/dl) or acutely deficient rats (expt. 2, mean serum retinol less than 5 micrograms/dl) infected with P. berghei were not significantly different from those of infected A+AL or A+PF rats. Furthermore, when the mildly deficient rats were given a second, larger dose of P. berghei, all demonstrated complete immunity to the parasite. However, when vitamin A was withdrawn midway through pregnancy (expt. 3), the A- rats experienced significantly higher parasitemia and mortality during infection with P. berghei. Malaria caused a significant decrease in the serum retinol but not liver retinol of the A+PF and A+AL rats. Among the acutely deficient rats, xerophthalmia was significantly more prevalent and more severe among those infected with malaria than among those not infected with malaria. Malaria and vitamin A deficiency acted synergistically to increase spleen weight, and this interaction was highly significant. In these experiments, vitamin A deficiency decreased the rats' ability to recover from malaria, but only when the deficiency began early in life, was very severe, and the rats were young when infected.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Interactions between vitamin A deficiency and Plasmodium berghei infection in the rat. 269 6

From 1982 to 1984 170 children of Kikwawila village (Kilombero district, Tanzania) were followed for nutritional (anthropometric measures, hematocrit, serum retinol, prealbumin, and zinc concentrations), parasitological (malaria parasitemia, urinary schistosomiasis, intestinal parasites) and immunological characteristics. Between 2.9% and 12.4% had serum retinol levels less than 100 micrograms/l which indicate deficiency. Retinol concentrations were correlated with age, hematocrits, prealbumin levels and mid upperarm circumferences. The latter correlation may be useful in nutritional surveys and primary health care programs for the identification of populations at risk of retinol deficiency. No association was found between average retinol levels and the presence of parasites, with the exception of malaria. Retinol levels were inversely correlated with malaria parasitemia in 1982, and directly correlated with antibody titers to synthetic sporozoite peptide in 1984. Since retinol, malaria parasitemia, and antisporozoite antibodies increased with age, confounding by age could not be excluded. Six months after administration of ornidazole in a single oral dose of 10 mg/kg, a significant effect on the prevalence of Giardia lamblia was found. Following treatment, average retinol levels were increased in persons with confirmed G. lamblia infections, but not in uninfected or untreated controls.
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PMID:A longitudinal study on relations of retinol with parasitic infections and the immune response in children of Kikwawila village, Tanzania. 289 Dec 70

Two companion, randomized, placebo-controlled trials of prophylactic vitamin A supplementation provided the opportunity to assess the impact of supplementation on malaria parasitemia, morbidity, and mortality in young children in northern Ghana. In the mortality study, 21,906 children were visited every 4 mo over 2 y, and in the morbidity study 1455 children were visited weekly for 1 y. There was no difference between children supplemented with vitamin A and those given placebo in malaria mortality rates (rate ratio = 1.03; 95% CI 0.74, 1.43) or fever incidence based on reported symptoms. Malaria parasitemia rates, parasite densities in children with a positive blood smear, and rates of probable malaria illness also did not differ between treatment groups. There was no correlation between serum retinol at the beginning of the trial and subsequent malaria parasitemia in children who received placebo (r = 0.01). It is concluded that vitamin A supplementation had no impact on malaria in this population.
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PMID:Vitamin A supplementation and childhood malaria in northern Ghana. 757 19

1. To assess the association between vitamin A, vitamin E and the clinical course of severe malaria, serial morning blood samples were taken from 24 Vietnamese patients, aged 18-62 years, receiving intensive treatment for complicated Plasmodium falciparum infections. A single fasting blood sample was also taken from 10 control subjects aged 22-45 years. Serum retinol, carotene and vitamin E concentrations were measured by h.p.l.c. 2. Admission serum retinol concentration was depressed relative to that of the control subjects (0.69 +/- 0.35 versus 1.86 +/- 0.41 mumol/l mean +/- SD, P < 0.001) and correlated inversely with indices of hepatic function, but positively with the simultaneous serum creatinine concentration (P < 0.05). During the first week of treatment, serum retinol concentration increased in parallel with improving liver function, whereas serum creatinine concentration remained elevated in the majority of patients. Serum alpha- and beta-carotene concentrations remained depressed throughout. 3. Serum vitamin E concentration, corrected for total serum cholesterol concentration in the form of a ratio, was also depressed at presentation (3.1 +/- 1.8 x 10(3) versus 4.2 +/- 0.8 x 10(3) in control subjects; P < 0.05), but tended to be higher than the control value at the time of discharge (0.1 > P > 0.05); there was a significant correlation between admission ratio and parasite clearance time (P = 0.04). 4. On the basis of this and previous studies, vitamin A replacement could be considered in selected severely ill patients without renal impairment. As found previously in animal models, depressed vitamin E levels may have a beneficial effect on the course of malarial infection.
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PMID:Serum vitamin A and E concentrations in acute falciparum malaria: modulators or markers of severity? 787 37

Although most studies on the effect of vitamin A supplementation have reported reductions in childhood mortality, the effects on morbidity are less clear. We have carried out two double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trials of vitamin A supplementation in adjacent populations in northern Ghana to assess the impact on childhood morbidity and mortality. The Survival Study included 21,906 children aged 6-90 months in 185 geographical clusters, who were followed for up to 26 months. The Health Study included 1455 children aged 6-59 months, who were monitored weekly for a year. Children were randomly assigned either 200,000 IU retinol equivalent (100,000 IU under 12 months) or placebo every 4 months; randomisation was by individual in the Health Study and by cluster in the Survival Study. There were no significant differences in the Health Study between the vitamin A and placebo groups in the prevalence of diarrhoea or acute respiratory infections; of the symptoms and conditions specifically asked about, only vomiting and anorexia were significantly less frequent in the supplemented children. Vitamin-A-supplemented children had significantly fewer attendances at clinics (rate ratio 0.88 [95% CI 0.81-0.95], p = 0.001), hospital admissions (0.62 [0.42-0.93], p = 0.02), and deaths (0.81 [0.68-0.98], p = 0.03) than children who received placebo. The extent of the effect on morbidity and mortality did not vary significantly with age or sex. However, the mortality rate due to acute gastroenteritis was lower in vitamin-A-supplemented than in placebo clusters (0.66 [0.47-0.92], p = 0.02); mortality rates for all other causes except acute lower respiratory infections and malaria were also lower in vitamin A clusters, but not significantly so. Improving the vitamin A intake of young children in populations where xerophthalmia exists, even at relatively low prevalence, should be a high priority for health and agricultural services in Africa and elsewhere.
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PMID:Vitamin A supplementation in northern Ghana: effects on clinic attendances, hospital admissions, and child mortality. Ghana VAST Study Team. 810 78


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