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Biomedical subjects

K Alam

Publications and source records attributed to K Alam.

60 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Endemic focus of Fasciolopsis buski infection in Bangladesh.

Stool surveys were conducted on children 2--10 years of age in 27 villages within Dacca District and around this index area (1,668 children were sampled), revealing an endemic focus of Fasciolopsis buski infection to the south and the east of Dacca District. In order to determine the seasonal variation in the total snail populations and the natural rate of F. buski infection in the snails, two species of planorbid snails, Segmentina (Trochorbis) trochoideus and Hippeutis (Helicorbis) umbilicalis, were periodically sampled for 12 months from a village endemic for F. buski infection. Gymnocephalous cercariae were found in S. (T.) trochoideus snails during August, September and October. The size of the snail population (n = 1,275) was significantly correlated with inches of rainfall (r = +0.62; P less than 0.05) and water temperature (r = +0.59; P less than 0.05). The natural infection rate of F. buski in the snails ranged from 0.5--2%. Snails from non-endemic areas were exposed to 3--10 miracidia. A total of 13 of 49 (27%) of H. (H.) umbilicalis and 6 of 14 (43%) of S. (T.) trochoideus had gymnocephalous cercariae present 4 to 6 weeks after exposure to miracidia. Thus, snail strain variation is unlikely to be a barrier to F. buski transmission.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Medication counseling center in a teaching hospital.

Patient compliance is often not achieved during drug therapy. Many reasons including lack of patients' understanding regarding medication and disease, poor socioeconomic pattern, unavailability of drugs are attributed to this situation. Providing counseling to patients can improve their understanding regarding medication, disease and life style modifications which in turn improves compliance. Medication counseling centers are one of the means to counsel the patients. The study was conducted to analyze the performance of such a center at Manipal Teaching Hospital, a teaching hospital in Western Nepal. Patients were counseled as per the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act-1990 guidelines and data were collected from the documentation form of the center and analyzed. Results indicated that 84.5% of the patients were directed to the medication counseling center by the pharmacists. Nearly one quarter of the population was either asthmatic or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. Bronchodilators were found to be the major therapeutic category of drugs and were found in 26.7% of the patients. Among the various counseling aids, placebo inhalers were used in 45.1% of the patients. The counseling pharmacists dedicated an average time period of 6-10 minutes in about 42.1% of the patients. Language was found to be the major barrier while counseling 16.5% of the patients. The study concluded that the medication counseling center can play a definite role in enhancing patients' understanding about medications and disease pattern, which in turn may improve patient compliance.

Adolescent↗