Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Slums”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 955 records · Page 53Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

A coordinated approach to children's health in India: progress report after five years (1975-1980).

The success of an experiment in a coordinated approach to children's health care in India in 33 community blocks led to its expansion to a national programme covering 150 community blocks by 1980. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme has also been successful as a national programme. Acceptance of immunisation and nutrition intervention schemes and improvement in nutritional status were significantly higher in the community served through the integrated approach than in the community receiving health, nutrition, and education services separately. Favourable impact of ICDS services was proportionally better in the first year than in the fourth year of the service. The Government of India has declared it a programme of national importance to expand and cover 913 of the 5011 community blocks and 87 urban slum areas by 1985.

Child Care↗
PubMed1983

[Kala-azar in Portugal. III. Results of a survey on canine leishmaniasis performed in the Lisbon region. Comparison of urban and rural zones].

A serological and parasitological survey of dogs was done in four slum areas on the outskirts of Lisbon and a rural area west of Setúbal. The serological test was the IFAT. The total number of dogs examined was 572 which 55 (9,6%) had titre greater than or equal to 1/128, 10 of these dogs were among 182 (5,5%) in the urban areas and 45 were in the sample of 390 dogs (11,5%) in the rural area. 23 dogs with titres of greater than or equal to 1/128 were examined parasitologically. The methods were the examination of tissue from popliteal lymph nodes (by direct examination and the inoculation of NNN cultures and hamsters), the direct examination of stained smears from sores and the direct examination of stained smears of healthy skin. Parasites were demonstrated in 15 (65,2%) of the 23 dogs. 14 dogs with high titres were followed up by a second IFAT. 5 had become higher, 5 had remained the same and, in 4, the titres had fallen. The results of the survey suggest that canine leishmaniasis is more common in the rural area than in the urban sites. The disease in man in the focus studied appears to be accidental and, paradoxically likely to be acquired rather in the town than in the villages. The reason is probably related to zoophilic preference of vector, and the fact that the population in rural areas is widely dispersed.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

[A sociologic study of health care accessibility in an urban milieu in Tunis].

In developing countries, the study of access to medical care reveals the inequality of health coverage. In rural areas, the two main limiting factors are the lack of health services and the difficulty of access, especially distance. But the relevant factors in urban areas have been little studied. In Mellassine, which is the largest slum of Tunis, we studied the behaviour of 400 under-4 children's mothers in relation to health care. The following factors proved relevant: sex of the child, size of the family, father's profession, level of education, material resources; distance, cost and quality of reception of health services; finally the cultural pattern, particularly the representation of children disease by the mothers. Such an approach allows a reflection to reduce the inequality of access to medical care.

Child Health Services↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Prevalence of leprosy in children of leprosy parents.

A cross sectional clinical study was done in slums and adjoining village of Raipur town. All the children in 100 families, in which at least one patient of proved leprosy was present were examined. Children of 100 non-leprosy families served as control. In leprous families prevalence was 14.2 times higher in comparison to children in control group. Also prevalence was higher in children of those families in which number of patients were more than one, or there was lepromatous leprosy. In children the common type of lesion were tuberculoid, indeterminate, borderline and pure neural type in that order, while no case of lepromatous leprosy was seen.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Field application of combined therapy for infectious leprosy cases. A feasibility study in Bombay.

The practical problems related to dapsone monotherapy for a prolonged period to infectious leprosy patients are well known to the scientific community and combined treatment of dapsone with clofazimine, rifampicin or prothionamide has been successfully carried out by several workers in hospitalised leprosy patients. The application of polytherapy in field condition was hindered by the cost of the drugs and fear of side effects. 42 infectious leprosy patients attending 5 field leprosy clinics in the slums of Bombay city were put on combined drug schedule. The drug compliance of these patients was judged along with their regularity in attendance at clinics by the persons in charge and periodic and frequent check up of urines. 27 (65%) were regular in treatment from the beginning, 8(19%) who were initially irregular after motivation and 7(17%) remained irregular through out the period. The urine samples collected from leprosy patients on monotherapy and attending the same centres revealed 31% irregularity in drug consumption. The study indicates that advocating combined therapy in field conditions by paramedical workers is quite feasible. The patients on multiple drugs are more regular in drug consumption as compared to monotherapy group. The frequent check up of urine for drug content and advice to patients who are irregular in treatment improve their regularity in drug consumption.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Urban malaria control situation and environmental issues, Madras City, India.

Madras was one of 22 urban places in India where centrally sponsored urban malaria control schemes were introduced in 1971-1972. Yet since 1970, malaria cases have actually registered a significant increase in Madras. This paper deals with some critical environmental issues facing malaria control schemes. The overall spatial trends and patterns of malaria incidence are illustrated through maps for the years 1975-1981. Areas of high incidence are shown in the northern part of the city which is also traditionally an endemic area. The City Corporation has identified 17 high risk divisions accounting for 75% of the total registered cases in the city. High risk areas were found to be related to environmentally deteriorating areas such as high density, older, residential areas, slums and squatter settled areas along stretches of two rivers and a canal which traverse the city, and the low-lying poorly drained areas scattered over many parts of the city. The typical breeding grounds and sources of major vectors (anophelines and culicines) are presented. A relationship exists between the density of breeding sources (of Anopheles stephensi), such as private and public wells (in use and in disuse), overhead tanks and cisterns, and malaria cases. Field observations were made in detail in four selected high risk areas. Each area presents different environmental, epidemiological and human (social) factors in understanding malaria resurgence situation and demand different types of control measures. The problems of implementation of urban control schemes are found to be political, administrative, economic, social as well as environmental in nature. The persistence of malaria problems in the city has been attributed to slackening of malaria eradication measures, rapid urban growth and deteriorating environmental conditions with sewage, drainage and sanitation programmes lagging far behind the plans. The advantages and drawbacks of various antimalaria (mostly larval) measures in practice are presented. Biological and chemical control methods of malaria seem to provide only temporary control of the vectors. Some of the problems and constraints faced by Madras City Corporation in enforcing public health measures are discussed. The study also points out that environmental improvement, management techniques and health education, including raising the public awareness and cooperation, involvement and participation at neighbourhood/community levels in a meaningful way, have a long way to go in achieving permanent vector control and eliminating the reservoir of infection.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Morbidity and mortality study on diarrhoeal diseases in North Jakarta - an urban area.

Diarrhoea including its interaction with undernutrition is one of the most important health problems and a major cause of death in young children in developing countries including Indonesia. To quantify the problems and to have comparison with results of other diarrhoeal surveys in Indonesia as well as in other developing countries, a survey was done in urban community comprising a population of 5,115 living in a relatively good area which was not a slum, nor wealthy area. The incidence of diarrhoea in this area was 149 per 1000 population a year and mortality rate of 0.2 per 1000 population, and 1.8% of diarrhoeal cases in the community became dehydrated needing hospitalization. The incidence of diarrhoeal disease was lower than in the survey done in semiurban area Ujung Pandang 8 years ago. This may be due to the improvement of environmental health, socio-economic status and better education. 47% of the diarrhoeal cases had occurred in children under age five. The peak incidence was in the 6 to 12 months age group. Young-age combined with low-nutritional status and early weaning may be factors leading to high incidence and death rates of diarrhoeal diseases. Incidence increased in the middle of the rainy season. 30% of the episodes were caused by enteropathogenic bacteria, 15.4% by rotavirus while for 50% of episodes the causative agent could not be determined.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Distance learning for primary health care.

The United Nations' stated objective is to bring primary health care to all by the year 2000. To reach this goal, the health profession will have to be involved in a greater change than has ever taken place since the introduction of scientific medicine. Important advances in educational methods offering many advantages for developing countries have taken place. The most valuable may be "distance learning". A small group led by an educationist would be involved in preparing distance learning material appropriate for health teams offering primary care in villages and slums. As a result of this training, the teams would be better prepared to tackle the major health problems of the communities they serve. In children, these problems are malnutrition, diarrhea and respiratory disease, which together account for half the number of childhood deaths.

Allied Health Personnel↗
PubMed1978

Schooling, environment, and cognitive development: a cross-cultural study.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of schooling and general environmental conditions on the development of memory and cognitive skills in young children. The subjects were 824 5- and 6-year-old children living in jungle villages and in slum settlements of Lima, Peru. Half of the children in both the jungle and city were Mestizo, and half were Quechua Indians. Some 6-year-olds of each cultural group and in each location attended school; others did not. Memory tasks were presented in different modes of representation, that is, verbal, pictorial, and enactive; and cognitive tasks in "concrete" and "abstract" versions. A sample of parents in each group was interviewed concerning environmental conditions. In addition, samples of upper-middle-class children in Lima and poor children in Detroit were tested to assess the generality of the findings. Attendance at school was related to improvement in performance on all tasks. Improvement was equivalent for both locations, both cultural groups, and each social class. Attendance at school also was accompanied by reduced within-group variability on some tasks and by greater differentiation of cognitive processes within children. Location and cultural group interacted differentially by task according to a complex pattern of relations. There were no indications that the organization of memory or cognitive processes differed as a function of social class, age, location, or cultural group. The results were interpreted in terms of children's opportunities to acquire specific memory and cognitive skills from schooling and from their general experience in a particular environment.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1994

Extinction of Vibrio cholerae in acidic substrata: contaminated cabbage and lettuce treated with lime juice.

Lime juice killed millions of Vibrio cholerae O1, El Tor, Inaba, present on cabbage and lettuce contaminated in the laboratory. The lethal effect was evident within 5 min of exposure to lime juice. No vibrios could be recovered at dilution 1:10 using alkaline peptone water (APW) and thiosulfate-citrate-bile salts-saccharose agar (TCBS). More than 99.9% of the initial inoculum was effectively destroyed. The number of vibrios killed by lime juice was 2 to 6 logarithms greater than the maximum infecting dose, and 4 to 8 logs greater than the minimum infecting dose for cholera El Tor. The time interval needed for killing was smaller than the usual waiting time for serving food in homes and restaurants. The addition of lime juice to non-acidic foods, beverages and water, is strongly recommended to prevent infection with cholera vibrios and other acid-sensitive microorganisms. This measure is particularly important for rural and slum populations in the tropics and subtropics.

Cholera↗
PubMed1994

After epidemiological research: what next? Community action for health promotion.

The underlying purpose of all epidemiological research is ultimately to use inferences in order to prevent disease and promote health and well-being. Effective skills in translating results into appropriate policy, programs, and interventions are inherently tricky, and often politically controversial. Generally they are not taught to epidemiologists formally, even though they are a traditionally part of public health practice. To move from findings to policy change requires that the informed and committed epidemiologist should known how to: (1) organize affected parties to negotiate successfully with government and industry; (2) activate populations at risk to protect their health (3) communicate responsibly with lay persons about their health risks so as to encourage effective activism; (4) collaborate with other professionals to achieve disease prevention and health promotion goals. The paper presents and discusses four case studies to illustrate these strategies: (1) the grass-roots social action that was the response of the community to the environmental contamination at Love Canal, New York; (2) mobilization of recognized leaders within the gay community to disseminate HIV risk reduction techniques; (3) collaboration with an existing voluntary organization interested in community empowerment through health promotion in a Chicago slum by using existing hospital, emergency room admissions, and local motor vehicle accident data; (4) a self-help group, MADD (mothers against drunk driving) which fought to change public policy to limit and decrease drunk driving. In addition, the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration and responsible communication with the public is emphasized. Factors that limit the ability of the epidemiologist to move into public health action are discussed, including who owns the research findings, what is the degree of scientific uncertainty, and the cost-benefit balance of taking affirmative public action. Putting epidemiological knowledge to good use should be an integral part of an epidemiologist's repertoire.

Community Health Planning↗
PubMed1994

Accidents involving adults in the home environment in Nairobi, Kenya.

Hospital records covering the period between 1986 and 1990 obtained from 10 major city hospitals and 12 City Council Health clinics were reviewed and information on age, sex, occupation, type and cause of injury and its management was extracted. Also extracted was information on outcome of treatment. This paper deals only with information related to persons aged 18 years and above. The results show that out of 9648 hospital records reviewed, 48% were adult cases, with a male to female ratio of 1.5:1. Age group 18-35 years constituted more than 70% of all the cases, declining markedly with increasing age. The slums and low income group residential areas contributed 63% of the cases. The main types of injuries attended to were open wounds (34%), burns (13%), swellings (7%), lacerations and bruises (6%), bites and limb injuries (5%), respectively. The results show that there is a clear case for a community operational research project with a strong accident prevention component.

Accidents, Home↗
PubMed1994

Urban planning and vector control in Southeast Asian cities.

A large and growing proportion of the population in many Southeast Asian cities live in slums and squatter settlements and they suffer from excessive exposure to insect and rodent vectors which transmit disease from one host to another. In such settlements, the quality of life, which is poor anyway, is made even worse by the high incidence of vector-borne diseases. Vector proliferation in high-density, low-income urban settlements is the consequence of a number of factors, such as lack of adequate housing, water supply, sanitation, drainage, and solid waste management facilities. There is an urgent need to rethink intersectoral and integrated approaches to the design and planning of healthy urban environments, covering such matters as basic infrastructure and services, urban land use planning and waste management, health-promoting housing and architecture, and the control of all other factors that determine human health and well-being. With cooperation between and among the communities, local governments, and nongovernmental organizations as the basis, the installation of low-cost sanitation and drainage systems, the organization of collection services for the disposal of garbage, the provision of house screening and other protective measures, and the removal of breeding sites can greatly reduce the threat of most urban vectors.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Growth patterns in breastfed babies during first six months of life.

Growth of exclusively breastfed 126 normal newborns in urban slums and those delivered at Nehru Hospital, Medical College, Gorakhpur were studied upto six months of age. The average weight of both boys and girls was almost equivalent to the 25th percentile of NCHS standard upto 3 months but fell below these standards thereafter. The average length in both boys and girls was between 25th and 50th percentile of NCHS data. The average head circumference in girls was between 25th and 50th percentile of NCHS data at all ages but in boys it was between 10th and 25th percentile at 4, 5 and 6 months of age. The average weight, length, head and chest circumference in both boys and girls were comparable to ICMR standards. The observations indicate that exclusive breastfeeding should be promoted for adequate growth of infants during first six months of life.

Anthropometry↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Measles control in developing countries].

The EPI has made significant progress in reducing global morbidity and mortality from measles. Many countries are considering the need for additional strategies in response to the changes in measles epidemiology which occur when vaccination coverage increases. Measles vaccination changes the relative age distribution of cases towards older groups, because measles transmission becomes less intense so that children reach older ages before being exposed to wild virus. The proportion of cases occurring below the target age group for vaccination may also increase, though the number of cases does not always increase. Outbreaks are likely to occur after some years of low incidence in countries which have moderate or high coverage, for several reasons. Firstly, susceptibles gradually accumulate over a number of years until a "post-honeymoon" outbreak occurs. Second, there may be pockets of low coverage which occur for example in urban slums, in nomadic and other inaccessible populations, or among groups with religious or philosophical objections to vaccination. Third, outbreaks can occur among vaccinated children who did not respond to the vaccine. Even in industrialized countries, where measles vaccine is administered in the second year of life and is over 90% effective in protecting against disease, small outbreaks have occurred among vaccine failures under conditions of close contact such as school settings. In developing countries, where measles vaccine is usually administered at age 9 months, approximately 15% of children are not protected, and vaccine failures can be expected to play an increasing role in outbreaks in the future. Furthermore, if vaccine efficacy is reduced because of poor vaccine storage or handling, large outbreaks may occur.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Immunization in urban areas: issues and strategies.

In the past, immunization programmes have focused primarily on rural areas. However, with the recognition of the increasing numbers of urban poor, it is timely to review urban immunization activities. This update addresses two questions: Is there any need to be concerned about urban immunization and, if so, is more of the same kind of rural EPI activity needed or are there specific urban issues that need specific urban strategies? Vaccine-preventable diseases have specific urban patterns that require efficacious vaccines for younger children, higher target coverage levels, and particular focus to ensure national and global eradication of poliomyelitis. Although aggregate coverage levels are higher in urban than rural areas, gaps are masked since capital cities are better covered than other urban areas and the coverage in the poorest slum and periurban areas within cities is as bad as or worse than that in rural areas. Difficult access to immunization services in terms of distance, costs, and time can still be the main barrier in some parts of the city. Mobilization and motivation strategies in urban areas should make use of the mass media and workplace networks as well as the traditional word-of-mouth strategies. Use of community health workers has been successful in some urban settings. Management issues concern integration of the needs of the poor into a coherent city health plan, coordination of different health providers, and clear lines of responsibility for addressing the needs of new, urbanizing areas.

Child↗
PubMed1993

Body mass index and work-disabling morbidity: results from a Bangladeshi case study.

A classification for chronic energy deficiency (CED) among adults has recently been proposed which utilizes body mass index (BMI). This paper reports on data collected in an urban slum in Bangladesh on the association between BMI and work-disabling morbidity among adult men (n = 199). The mean BMI among the study men was 19.0 (SD = 2.9). 9% were classified as grade III CED, 15.6% grade II, 27% grade I, and 48.2% as 'normal'. There was a significant inverse association between BMI and work-disabling morbidity. Below a BMI of 16.0, 55% of men had lost one or more working days in the month prior to interview. This proportion dropped to 35% among those with a BMI between 16.0 and 17.0. Above a BMI 'threshold' of 17.0, the percentage of men incapacitated from work was similar in each BMI category. These results held whether accidents were included or excluded. Although the results are limited by the cross-sectional design of the study, the association supports the proposed classification of CED among adults. It is hoped that these results stimulate further research in this area.

Absenteeism↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Lyme disease. Report of a case observed in Brazil].

Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi transmitted by Ixodid tick bite. The geographic distribution of the disease is universal, but the disease has not been identified definitely in South America yet. We report a probable case of Lyme disease in a woman, living in Jagůaré slum (São Paulo), who showed characteristics skin lesions of erythema chronicum migrans, with fever, weakness, headache, muscular pain, cough, arthralgia and sensitive radicular neuropathy in the left arm. The sequential serology made by ELISA method, using Borrelia burgdorferi whole sonicated antigen from Dr. Allen C. Steere laboratory, showed high titers of IgM antibody (1:1600). Because of the persistence of high IgM response for two months, we decided to treat the patient with tetracycline 2g/day during 10 days and the sorology became negative two months. The western blotting confirmed ELISA results showing presence of five bands (IgM). This report fulfills CDC criteria for Lyme disease diagnosis.

Adult↗