Outbreak of poliomyelitis in Namibia.
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Due to the increasing global HIV prevalence, comprehensive knowledge about clinical HIV transmission risks in health care professionals is essential. Mainly medical and nursing students are at risk, because they are working close to infected patients. By using an anonymous questionnaire, the study analysed the assessments of German medical/dental students (n = 182), Lithuanian medical students (n = 176) and Namibian student nurses (n = 135) on the risk of getting HIV infected in different clinical situations. It became obvious that the Namibian student nurses overestimated the risk of HIV transmission in several situations (eg changing dirty linen, physical examination). In comparison, the Lithuanian students showed the most realistic assessments, while the German students also tended to overestimate the risks of HIV transmission. The results indicate that assessments on the risk of HIV transmission in clinical situations are influenced by the national prevalence and daily contacts with HIV patients. Education of health care students should consider this and focus more on epidemiological aspects and infection control procedures, to avoid endangering students and patients.
Tests for airborne movement of anthrax spores downwind from three heavily contaminated carcass sites were carried out under a range of wind conditions. Anthrax spores were detected in just three of 43 cyclone or gelatin filter air samples taken at distances of 6, 12 and 18 m from the sites. In addition, nine positives resulted during sampling sessions in which the site was mechanically disturbed, with a further five positives being found in sessions subsequent to those in which the site had been disturbed. The three positive samples not related to man-made disturbance were associated with the highest winds experienced during the study. Despite colony counts exceeding 100 on the culture plates in three instances, calculations showed that these represented very low worst case probable spore inhalation rates for animals or humans exposed to such levels. The low number of positives, the clear pattern of rapidly declining numbers of anthrax spores with distance downwind from the centres of the sites apparent on settle plates, and the persisting levels of contamination despite wind and rain, collectively suggest that the anthrax spores were associated with fairly heavy particles, although this was not seen by electron microscopy on soil samples from the sites. Overall, the findings are interpreted as indicating that it is very unlikely that Etosha animals contract anthrax by the inhalation route while simply in transit near or across a carcass site. The significance of the observations in relation to weather conditions in the Etosha, other studies on particulate aerosols in the region, and reports of long-distance airborne movement of microbes, is discussed.
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This paper questions international public health theories that characterize AIDS in Africa as an unambiguous heterosexual epidemic. It does so by describing the daily sexual lives of a community of Namibian youth who engage in same-sex sexual practices. The author outlines how the ongoing vilification of "homosexuals" by ruling State officials serves as a stigmatizing backdrop against which young people experience and practice their sexuality. Drawing upon 20 months of ethnographic research, the paper discusses the HIV sexual risk perceptions and practices of young men, highlighting the complexities in sexual subjectivity that form within the cultural politics of competing masculinities, state-sponsored anti-homosexual rhetoric and transnational queer rights protest. Bounded and monolithic notions of gender and sexual identity do not lend themselves to HIV risk and vulnerability analysis in this community.
A new species of Microsporidia classified to a new genus was observed in the trunk muscle of commercial hake (Merluccius capensis/paradoxus complex) from Namibian fisheries. Macroscopic examination revealed thin and dark filaments inserted among muscle fibers. Inside the filaments were many sporophorous vesicles with about 30-50 spores per vesicle. The shape of the spore was pyriform and the extruded polar filament was of moderate length (up to 4.29 microm, n=12). This new species of Microsporidia is described using macrophotography, microphotography, staining, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), as well as molecular methods. Its 16S rRNA was found to be similar to that of Microsporidium prosopium Kent et al., 1999, while both sequences were quite different from 16S rRNA sequences known for other Microsporidia. Nevertheless, this new species is separated morphologically from M. prosopium by the presence of 11-12 anisofilar coils and the formation of the xenoma at the site of infection. Type species.
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The relation of circulating sex hormones and cognitive abilities was investigated in 114 healthy !Kung San men ('bushmen') of Namibia/Southern Africa who lived mainly as traditional hunter-gatherers. Blood and saliva samples were analysed by use of radioimmunoassays in order to determine the serum concentrations of total testosterone (Tser), 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and estradiol (E2), as well as the level of bioavailable, non-SHBG-bound 'free' testosterone in the saliva. The cognitive ability was assessed with two verbal (verbal fluency) and three nonverbal tests (tactual-spatial functioning, field independence/field dependence). As to be expected from previous research on Western samples, all three androgens but not E2 are of significance to the !Kung San men's cognitive performance. Tser exhibits a positive relation to tactual-spatial abilities and to the degree of lateralization of this task; on the other hand, Tser is negatively correlated with verbal fluency. Testosterone in the saliva is also significantly positively correlated to tactual-spatial test scores and, in addition, to field independence. DHT and the ratio DHT/Tser are positively related to verbal fluency and negatively to the degree of lateralization of tactual-spatial performance.
The aim of this study was to determine the quantity and quality of our service in the out-patient department (OPD). During 2 weeks in November and December 1996 all out-patients were followed throughout their stay. Service times, waiting times, time on arrival, time on departure and completeness of the service were recorded. All in all, 4999 patients, who had 17,436 contacts with healthcare providers were recorded. Approximately 500 out-patients were seen daily with 48.43% follow-ups and 15.24% referrals. Two-thirds (74.79%) of all patients arrived before 1100 h. Between 200 and 300 patients were present in the OPD at any time between 0900 h and 1600 h. Twelve per cent (621 patients) left the hospital with an incomplete service. Of the 1511 patients screened by the nurses only 20 (1.32%) were treated by them. The way the work was organized was inefficient and client unfriendly. Inefficient, because available expertise was not utilized. Client unfriendly, because this leads to situations where patients were denied the service to which they were entitled.
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We reviewed the records of fifty-five children, including eleven infants (three of whom were neonates), who had at least one skeletal manifestation of hematogenous osteomyelitis. Forty-two of the patients were boys and thirteen were girls. The patients were classified into three groups: those who had early acute, those who had late acute, and those who had chronic osteomyelitis. This classification system was based on clinical and radiographic criteria. Seven patients had early acute osteomyelitis; eighteen, late acute osteomyelitis; and thirty, chronic osteomyelitis. The bones most often affected were the tibia (twenty-two patients) and the femur (nineteen patients). Penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus grew on culture of specimens of purulent material from twenty-nine (76 per cent) of thirty-eight patients. Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, and Enterobacter grew on culture of specimens of purulent material from one patient each. Six cultures showed no growth. No purulent material was obtained from seventeen of the fifty-five patients. The seven patients who had early acute osteomyelitis, and four of the eighteen patients who had late acute osteomyelitis, responded well to antibiotic treatment only. A combination of antibiotic and operative treatment was needed in fourteen of the eighteen patients who had late acute osteomyelitis and in all thirty patients who had chronic osteomyelitis. Forty-nine of the fifty-five patients were followed for two years; the remaining six patients were lost to follow-up. The two-year results were good in nineteen of the twenty-three patients who had acute (early or late) osteomyelitis and in fifteen of the twenty-six patients who had chronic osteomyelitis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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