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Biomedical subjects

S Cairncross

Publications and source records attributed to S Cairncross.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

The impact of dracunculiasis on the nutritional status of children in South Kordofan, Sudan.

This paper assesses the indirect impact of dracunculiasis on the nutritional status of children under 6 years of age in South Kordofan, Sudan. Weight-for-height anthropometric measurement was used as a measure of the nutritional status of 774 children in 428 households. The indirect impact was investigated by comparing the nutritional status in 1988 of children in 'affected' households, where more than half the adult members had suffered from dracunculiasis in 1987, with children in other households. It was anticipated that when the otherwise able adult members of a households had dracunculiasis they were likely to be disabled by the disease and so prevented from fully performing their agricultural activities, so that the nutritional status of children in the same household would deteriorate in the following year. It was found that in 16.9% of the 136 'affected' households the children were wasted (with mean Z-scores of -2 or less), compared with only 6% of the other households.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

The reliability of retrospective studies using a one-year recall period to measure dracunculiasis prevalence in Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Cross-sectional studies are usually adopted to assess the one-year period prevalence of dracunculiasis. They depend upon a recall period of up to one year. This paper aims to examine the degree of accuracy with which villagers in an endemic region recall the occurrence of dracunculiasis during the 12 months prior to a cross-sectional survey. METHODS: Two types of study were conducted in Tolon, a village in Northern Ghana--retrospective and prospective. Data from people interviewed in a bimonthly survey throughout 1990 were compared with the results of a cross-sectional retrospective study conducted in early 1991. RESULTS: The results showed that retrospective studies using a recall period of up to one year to measure dracunculiasis prevalence gave only 59.9% of the actual cases, but there were roughly equal numbers of 'false positive' and 'false negative' cases, so that overall prevalence obtained was very close to the correct figure. CONCLUSIONS: Cross-sectional surveys may be of use to obtain estimates of the one-year period prevalence of dracunculiasis, but are not likely to be reliable enough for more detailed study.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Water sources and other determinants of dracunculiasis in the northern region of Ghana.

This paper describes a study carried out in a rural area of Ghana on the drinking water sources and other determinants of dracunculiasis (guinea worm disease). The results confirm the association between water source choice and the prevalence of the disease. A logistic regression model was used to show the combined effect of several behavioural, biological, and environmental risk factors. The important behavioural factors were related to the head of household, fetching of water, travelling, and farming. Age was found to be an important biological risk factor for dracunculiasis, but the greatest relative risk applied to those who had suffered from guinea worm disease in the previous year. Although males were significantly more infected than females when analysing the raw data, sex did not prove to be a significant risk factor in this model. Village of residence was an important environmental risk factor for dracunculiasis. Factors related to socio-economic status were not associated with the risk of infection. The paper concludes by presenting the policy implications of the study findings.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Elasticity of demand for water in Khartoum, Sudan.

A survey of the quantities of water purchased from vendors in the squatter areas of Khartoum, Sudan, was used to assess the effect of the price charged for water and of household income on domestic water consumption. Households in two squatter communities--Meiyo and Karton Kassala--were studied by observation and by interview. In spite of the substantially higher charges, water consumption in Karton Kassala was as high as that in Meiyo. Households within these communities showed no tendency to use less water when paying a higher price for it, or when their income was below average. In other words, no price elasticity or income elasticity was detectable. This was all the more striking in view of the high proportion of income that was spent on water; 17% in Meiyo, and 56% in Karton Kassala. One consequence of this lack of elasticity is that the poorest households devote the greatest percentage of their income to the purchase of water, although the only major item in their household budget which can be sacrificed to make this possible is food. The high price of water in urban Sudan is probably a major cause of the malnutrition prevalent in the squatter areas. Another consequence is that a low-income household's consumer surplus for domestic water is very high, amounting to a substantial proportion of its total income. This has important consequences for the economic appraisal of urban water supply schemes. It also follows that wealthier households with private connections would be willing to pay at least as much for water as that currently paid by the poor.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗
PubMed1990

Determinants of water quality, availability and use in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka.

Between January 1987 and February 1988, 4590 homes of children under five years of age were visited in three areas of Kurunegala district, Sri Lanka and data were collected on water related practices. 60% of the population used protected wells, 30% used unprotected sources and 10% used handpumps on boreholes or piped supplies. 90% of households had a source less than 1 km away. Mean water consumption was above 25 litres per capita per day and did not correlate with the distance to source. Samples of drinking water were collected and faecal coliform levels were determined in samples of stored water from 3092 households and in samples from the water sources used by 1043 of these households. The absence or presence of organisms in each sample, and the geometric mean count in samples with organisms were used as indices of contamination. Both indices changed with season and varied between areas and between types of water source. The proportion of positive source samples was uniformly high with the exception of piped supplies and handpumps. The mean count was highest for unprotected sources. There was no evidence that ground water contamination occurred in boreholes. With stored samples, boiling appeared to reduce contamination markedly. The proportion of positive stored water samples was also lower with the use of different vessels for collection and storage, with storage inside the house, and with use of a storage container other than an earthenware pot. Because surface water pollution appears to be important it is proposed that headwalls and drainage aprons be built around unprotected sources. Faecal contamination at the source may have more public health significance than contamination of stored water. In this respect public hygiene may play an important role in reducing water pollution at handpumps or protected wells.

Case-Control Studies↗
PubMed1988

Engineering, mosquitoes and filariasis: a case report.

The results of larval surveys were used to assess the relative numbers of mosquitoes breeding in different types of habitat and in different parts of the town of Pondicherry, India. The results illustrate an effective method to set priorities for mosquito control by identifying the most significant breeding sites in a town, and show that they are not necessarily the most obvious, the most extensive or those intuitively most likely.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Water use and health in Mueda, Mozambique.

A comparison of domestic water use in 2 villages in Mueda, Mozambique, indicated that a reduction in the length of the water collection journey from 5 h to 10 min was associated with an increase in average water consumption from 4.1 to 11.1 litres per person per day. Bathing and washing clothes accounted for 70% of the increased total. Bathing of children was a regular nightly event in the village with a water supply but almost unknown in the other. Water used for food preparation also increased, suggesting that scarcity of water may also influence diet. A major benefit of water supply is the saving of women's time and effort from water collection. In Mueda, it was an average of 1 3/4 h per day. More than half the time saved was spent on other household tasks, particularly grinding cereals, and on other productive work. Women spent much of the remainder with their children. A trachoma survey, organized as a training exercise for medical students, found a 19% prevalence of trachoma in the village with a water supply, while the prevalence was twice this figure in another village with no supply.

Cooking↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Long-term disability due to guinea worm disease.

The village-based surveillance system for guinea worm disease (dracunculiasis), which has been established in all endemic villages in Ghana, was used to carry out a retrospective study of long-term disability due to the disease. A sample of 195 cases was interviewed and examined, 12-18 months after emergence of the worm. Currently continuing pain when walking or working, attributable by its location and date of onset to the episode of dracunculiasis, was reported by 55 persons (28.2%). Some difficulty in performing at least one of 6 everyday physical activities, attributable after careful interview to the episode, was reported by 66 respondents (34.0%), of whom 10 (5.1%) were unable to carry out one of the activities. In one case, the disease had caused impairment of movement of the joints of the right thumb. The prevalence of serious permanent physical impairment among the cases in the study was thus 0.5%.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Twenty years of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Aleppo, Syria.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania tropica has long been associated with Aleppo in Syria. For 20 years up to the mid-1980s, the number of cases reported annually in the city and environs has remained low, not exceeding a few hundred. Since then, there has been a sudden increase to several thousand cases reported each year. The increase seems too great and too sudden to be attributable to improved case detection. Insecticide spraying, begun in 1991, was followed by a reduction in number of cases in 1992, but numbers increased subsequently in spite of continued spraying. The cases are found mainly in areas undergoing development outside the old centre of the city, and may be associated with poor waste disposal and heaps of construction waste.

Disease Outbreaks↗