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M A Baker

Publications and source records attributed to M A Baker.

169 records · Page 10Linked to original sources

Use of malaria prevention measures by North American and European travelers to East Africa.

BACKGROUND: The use of preventive measures, including effective chemoprophylaxis, is essential for protection against malaria among travelers. However, data have shown that travelers and medical advisors are confused by the lack of uniform recommendations and numerous prophylactic regimens of varying effectiveness that are used. METHODS: To assess the use and type of preventive measures against malaria, we conducted a cross-sectional study in 1997 among travelers departing from the Nairobi and Mombasa airports in Kenya with European destinations. RESULTS: Seventy-five percent of the travelers studied were residents of Europe and 25% were residents of North America; all stayed less than 1 year, and visited malarious areas. Most travelers, 97.1%, were aware of the risk and 91.3% sought pretravel medical advice. Although 95.4% used chemoprophylaxis and/or antimosquito measures, only 61.7% used both regular chemoprophylaxis and two or more antimosquito measures. Compliance with chemoprophylaxis was lowest amongst those who used a drug with a daily, as opposed to, a weekly dosing schedule, stayed more than 1 month, attributed an adverse health event to the chemoprophylaxis, and were less than 40 years of age. Among US travelers, 94.6% of those taking chemoprophylaxis were taking an effective regimen, that is, mefloquine or doxycycline. Only 1.9% used a suboptimal drug regimen, such as chloroquine/proguanil. Among European travelers, 69% used mefloquine or doxycycline, and 25% used chloroquine/proguanil. Notably, 45.3% of travelers from the UK used chloroquine/proguanil. Adverse events were noted by 19.7% of mefloquine users and 16.4% of travelers taking chloroquine/proguanil. Neuropsychologic adverse events were reported by 7.8% of users of mefloquine and 1.9% of those taking chloroquine/proguanil. The adverse events, however, had a lesser impact on compliance than frequent dosing schedule. CONCLUSIONS: Health information should be targeted to travelers who are likely to use suboptimal chemoprophylaxis or may be noncompliant with prophylaxis. Uniform recommendations for effective chemoprophylaxis with simple dosing schedules are necessary to reduce rates of malaria among travelers to Africa.

Adult↗

The fear of AIDS.

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Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and cisplatin in the treatment of non-small cell bronchogenic carcinoma.

One hundred and forty-three patients with unresectable non-small cell bronchogenic carcinoma were treated with combination chemotherapy consisting of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and cisplatin (CAP). Objective responses were seen in 27.5% of 131 evaluable patients. Response rates for squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and large cell anaplastic carcinoma were 30.2% (13 of 43 patients), 28.0% (14 of 50), and 32.1% (nine of 28), respectively. The median survival time for responders with extensive disease was 33.0 weeks compared with 29.3 weeks for patients with stable disease and only 9.6 weeks for patients with disease progression. The survival advantage of patients responding to CAP relative to those who had disease progression during treatment is highly significant statistically (P = 0.0005). However, patients whose disease remained stable also had longer survival than those who had disease progression (P = 0.001), and their survival was not significantly different from that of responders (P = 0.19). The CAP chemotherapy regimen was generally well-tolerated, although acute gastrointestinal symptoms were common. Our results indicate that CAP chemotherapy can cause tumor regression in patients with non-small cell bronchogenic carcinoma and may extend the survival of responding patients.

Adenocarcinoma↗