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Biomedical subjects

E Mohs

Publications and source records attributed to E Mohs.

47 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1976

[Considerations on malnutrition in Central America with special reference to Costa Rica].

This paper analyzes aspects relevant to the nutritional situation in Costa Rica and to a lesser extent the rest of Central America. The nutritional problems have been dealt in a realistic way trying to avoid magnification of the situation. The available data show that calorie-protein malnutrition, anemia and goiter are the problems that, in that order, should receive attention in public health planning. Deficient maternal education and infection of the child play a preponderant role in the etiology of calorie-protein malnutrition and anemia. Analyses presented here show the convenience to revise periodically the criteria used to characterize the nutritional status, in order to adequately plan health actions. Also, the necessity to carry out basic and applied research in the field is emphasized. The future of the nutritional situation is uncertain for the majority of the Central American countries. However, some demographic indicators reveal that nations such as Costa Rica probably will reach an adequate nutrition in a not too distant future.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evolution of paradigms of child health in developing countries.

In 1982 Costa Rica had an infant mortality of 18 per 1000 live births and a life expectancy at birth of 76 years for women and 72 years for men. In the evolution of infant health in Costa Rica two paradigms were identified. One developed in the decades before 1970 and the other during the 1970s. The necessity of conceptualizing a third new paradigm compatible with health needs of the present and the immediate future is recognized. The first or "malnutrition paradigm" was orthodox in its derivation; it identified the lack of food as the underlying base for the major health problems and placed its emphasis on institutional medicine. The paradigm was influenced by foreign schools of nutrition and pediatrics and led to the development of an infrastructure for the delivery of medical services and the programs for food distribution. The "infectious disease paradigm" recognized infectious diseases as the main determinants of morbidity, mortality and malnutrition in childhood. The strategies derived from such a revolutionary paradigm aimed at the control and eradication of infectious diseases, and they resulted in a rapid improvement of child nutrition and health. However, the infectious disease paradigm does not seem to reduce infant mortality below the present level.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cefotaxime vs. conventional therapy for the treatment of bacterial meningitis of infants and children.

Eighty-five infants and children were prospectively randomized to receive cefotaxime or ampicillin and chloramphenicol for therapy of bacterial meningitis. The two therapy groups of patients were comparable as to sex, age, clinical status on admission, prior administration of antibiotics and etiology. Three infants (7%) died in each therapy group. Mean number of days of positive cerebrospinal fluid cultures, time to defervescence and duration of treatment and of hospital stay and complications developing during treatment were similar for the two treatment regimens. Median cerebrospinal fluid bactericidal titers against the patients' pathogens in cefotaxime-treated patients (1:64) were larger than those in patients who received conventional therapy (1:8). Mild to moderate motor sequelae were more frequent in those given conventional therapy at the time of discharge only, and not at 4 months or longer of follow-up. We conclude that cefotaxime has similar efficacy when compared with conventional therapy for the management of bacterial meningitis in pediatric patients.

Ampicillin↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Rehydration by the oral route and its maintenance in patients from birth to 3 months old dehydrated due to diarrhea].

Studies of oral rehydration have been carried out in patients three months of age or older. With the exception of a previous report by us, nothing has been written before about the method of rehydration in patients of less than three month of age. During the period comprised between March 1978 and May 1979, we attended 106 patients; age ranging from seven days to three months and weighing 1,900 to 6,080 grams. The The dehydration status ranged from 2% - 4%; in all cases due to watery diarrhoea. Oral or nasogastric rehydration was accomplished in 97% of cases in an average time of seven hours. Several patients presented severe water and electrolyte unbalance, namely metabolic acidosis or hypernatremia. This returned near normality as the patients became rehydrated. We conclude that patients under 3 months of age respond as well as older ones to oral rehydration.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Disseminated histoplasmosis in children].

Clinical features and treatment evaluation of 38 children with disseminated histoplasmosis were studied. Thirty-six cases presented the severe form and two of them showed the mild chronic type. A higher incidence of this disease was found in infants (65%) and in severe malnutrition (68%) and lethality in the overall group was 61%. Patients died either because they did not receive specific treatment or were given amphotericin for less than 15 days. These figures stress the importance of this treatment in disseminated histoplasmosis.

Amphotericin B↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Meningococcal meningitis in Costa Rica, 1970--1973. Epidemiological study].

A retrospective hospital chart review of meningococcal meningitis cases in Costa Rica revealed a large number of cases confirmed in the laboratory by Gram-stained smear and/or culture of spinal fluid. A large percentage of the isolates studied were serogroup C and all of these were sulfonamide resistant. The age-specific attack rates were high in the preschool children with the highest attack rate in children 3 to 5 months of age. Case fatality ratios were 14% overall, with the low fatality rates in individuals 10 to 29 years of age. The outbreak of serogroup C meningitis in 1970--1971 was relatively brief, country-wide, and not predominantly a urban outbreak. The few secondary cases observed occurred within the first 2 weeks of the primary case.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Infectious agents in diarrhea of hospitalized children in Costa Rica].

Shigella, toxigenic Escherichia coli (stable toxin) and rotaviruses were frequently found among 50 children hospitalized with diarrhea studied during one year. These agents were less common among 45 controls without diarrhea, of comparable age and from the same wards as the cases reported. There was a greater frequency of respiratory symptoms in the diarrhea associated with rotaviruses. These were characterized by frequent bowel movements and vomiting and often fever. The bacterial diarrheas showed, in general, a more severe clinical picture than the viral ones. The rotaviruses had a low endemic level during April-October, but their prevalence increased in December and January; in such months these viruses were found in more than 50 per cent of the diarrheal cases.

Acute Disease↗