Molecular testing of respiratory swabs aids early recognition of meningococcal disease in children

Early meningococcal disease (MD) diagnosis is difficult. We assessed rapid molecular testing of respiratory specimens. We performed genotyping of respiratory swabs, blood, and cerebrospinal fluid from children with suspected disease and nasal swabs (NSs) from matched controls. Thirty-nine of 104 suspected cases had confirmed disease. Four controls were carriers. Throat swab ctrA and porA testing for detection of disease gave a sensitivity of 81% (17/21), specificity of 100% (44/44), positive predictive value (PPV) of 100% (17/17), negative predictive value (NPV) of 92% (44/48), and relative risk of 12. NS ctrA and porA testing gave a sensitivity of 51% (20/39), specificity of 95% (62/65), PPV of 87% (20/23), NPV of 77% (62/81), and relative risk of 4. Including only the 86 NSs taken within 48 h of presentation, the results were sensitivity of 60% (18/30), specificity of 96% (54/56), PPV of 90% (18/20), NPV of 82% (54/66), and relative risk of 5. Swab type agreement was excellent (kappa 0.80, P

Haematite in Lateritic Soils Aids Groundwater Disinfection

Microbiologically contaminated water severely impacts public health in low-income countries, where treated water supplies are often inaccessible to much of the population. Groundwater represents a water source that commonly has better microbiological quality than surface water. A 2-month intensive flow and quality monitoring programme of a spring in a densely settled, unsewered parish of Kampala, Uganda, revealed the persistent presence of high chloride and nitrate concentrations that reflect intense loading of sewage in the spring’s catchment. Conversely, thermotolerant coliform bacteria counts in spring water samples remained very low outside of periods of intense rainfall. Laboratory investigations of mechanisms responsible for this behavior, achieved by injecting a pulse of H40/1 bacteriophage tracer into a column packed with locally derived granular laterite, resulted in near-total tracer adsorption. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed the laterite to consist predominantly of quartz and kaolinite, with minor amounts (<5%) of haematite. Batch studies comparing laterite adsorption capacity with a soil having comparable mineralogy, but with amorphous iron oxide rather than haematite, showed the laterite to have a significantly greater capacity to adsorb bacteriophage. Batch study results using pure haematite confirmed that its occurrence in laterite contributes substantially to micro-organism attenuation observed and serves to protect underlying groundwater.

Students' awareness of and attitudes to AIDS

Students' attitudes to and knowledge and awareness of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was assessed by questionnaire. The recent information campaign reached a high proportion of the sample of 1063 students and television was the most memorable medium. Students were generally aware that AIDS was not associated with social contact but there was confusion about the risk of infection from donating or receiving blood, with 17.9% of blood donors now less willing to donate blood. Most of the students were aware that the condom reduces the risk of spread of AIDS sexually but there was no indication of widespread condom usage among the 399 students who admitted they were sexually active; 39.1% of this group used condoms alone or with other protection. Almost half the sample (47.6%) would like to have the opportunity to have their blood tested for the AIDS virus; 96 students would prefer this to be at a clinic and 59 of them would not wish their family doctor to know the result. A high proportion of the sample considered that AIDS victims should be cared for at home or in a special hospice.

Exposición Internacional 1910. Buenos Aires.: Didactic leisure and international recognition

International exhibitions were greatly responsible for the modernization of western society. The motive for these events was based on the possibility of enhancing the country’s international status abroad. The genesis of world exhibitions came from the conviction that humanity as a whole would improve the continual flow of new practical applications, the development of modern communication techniques and the social need for a medium that could acquaint the general public with changes in technology, economy and society .
Since the first national industrial exhibitions in Paris during the eighteenth century and especially starting from the first Great Exhibition in London’s Hyde Park in 1851 these international events spread steadily all over Europe and the United States, to reach Latin America in the beginnings of the twentieth century . The work of professionals such as Daniel Burnham, Werner Hegemann and Elbert Peets made the relation between exhibitions and urban transformation a much more connected one, setting a precedent for subsequent exhibitions.
In Buenos Aires, the celebration of the centennial of independence from Spain in 1910 had many meanings and repercussions. A series of factors allowed for a moment of change in the city. Official optimism, economical progress, inequality and social conflict made of this a suitable time for transformation. With the organization of the Exposición Internacional the government had, among others, one specific aim: to achieve a network of visual tools to set the feeling of belonging and provide an identity for the mixture of cultures that populated the city of Buenos Aires at the time. Another important objective of the government was to put Buenos Aires at the level of European cities.
Foreign professionals had a great influence in the conceptual and factual shaping of the exhibition and in the subsequent changes caused in the urban condition. The exhibition had an important role in the ways of thinking the city and in the leisure ideas it introduced. The exhibition, as a didactic tool, worked as a precedent for conceiving leisure spaces in the future. Urban and landscape planners such as Joseph Bouvard and Charles Thays were instrumental in great part of the design of the Exhibition, but it was not only the architects and designers who shaped the identity of the fair. Other visitors such as Jules Huret or Georges Clemenceau were responsible for giving the city an international image it did not previously have.
This paper will explore on the one hand the significance of the exhibition of 1910 for the shaping of the city and its image; and on the other hand, the role of foreign professionals and the reach these influences had.

Desire for fertility and associated factors among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in selected antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinics of Horro Guduru Wollega Zone, North West Oromia, Ethiopia- A cross sectional study

Background: Most recently fertility issues in HIV positive men and women are becoming increasingly important. Because of ART access and its good life effect, it is expected that the need and desire to get married, to have children and to have sexual partners for PLWHA would change with the regard to reproductive health. In Ethiopia HIV positive individuals may or may not have desire to have children. And the extent of this desire and how it varies by individual, health and demographic characteristics is not well known.

Objective: the aim of the study was to assess desire for fertility and associated factors among PLWHA in selected ART clinics of Horro Guduru Wollega Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia.

Methods: A cross-sectional, institutional-based study that employed quantitative and qualitative in-depth interviews was conducted. Three hundred twenty one study subjects were selected using systematic random sampling technique and the data was collected using interviewer administered structured questionnaire. Data entry and analysis were performed using EPI Info version 3.5.1 and SPSS version 16. P-value <0.05 was taken as statistically significant and logistic regression was used to control potential confounding factors.

Results: Seventy three (57.9%) of the males and seventy six (39%) of the females desired to have children, giving a total of 149(46.4%) of all study participants. PLWHA who desired children were younger (AOR:3.3, 95%CI: 1.3-8.9), married (AOR: 5.8, 95%CI: 2.7-12.8), had no children (AOR: 75, 95%CI: 20.1-273.3) and males (AOR; 1.9, 95%CI: 1.02-3.62) compared with their counter parts. The major reason for those people who did not desire children were having desired number of children 80 (46.5%) followed by fear of HIV transmission to child reported by 42 (24.4%) of them.

Conclusion: A considerable number of PLWHA wants to have a child currently or in the near future. Many variables like socio demography, partner related, number of alive children and HIV related disease condition were significantly associated with fertility desire.