Infant-feeding Practices among HIV-infected Mothers in an HIV-treatment Programme

The transmission of HIV via breastmilk has led to various recommendations for HIV-infected mothers. In this study, the feeding practices of HIV-infected mothers in the first six months of their infants' lives were evaluated. In total, 103 consecutive mothers of children, aged 6-24 months, were evaluated for their feeding practices in the first six months of their infants' lives. The mothers were recruited in two cohorts based on their entry (PMTCT cohort) or non-entry (non-PMTCT cohort) to an HIV MTCT-prevention programme. Information obtained included maternal age, socioeconomic class, and the educational level attained. All the babies in the non-PMTCT cohort were breastfed compared to none in the PMTCT cohort. Infant formula was inadequately prepared for 77.42% of babies in the non-PMTCT cohort compared to 18.64% in the PMTCT cohort. The mixed-feeding rate was high (70.45 %) in the non-PMTCT cohort. Over 70% of babies in both the cohorts were bottle-fed. Voluntary counselling and testing services in the healthcare system should be strengthened. All mothers should receive infant-feeding counselling, with exclusive breastfeeding being encouraged in those with unknown HIV status

Assessment of the efficacy of selected disinfectant formulations against clinical isolates of Staphyloccocus aureus from a tertiary Hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria

Background: S. aureus is one of the most common causes of nosocomial infections and can cause a range of illnesses, from minor skin infections to life threatening diseases.Objective: This study was done to assess the efficacy of some commercially available disinfectants and to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility profile of clinical S. aureus isolates.Material and Methods: Fifty S. aureus isolates were obtained from the Microbiology unit of the University College Hospital, Ibadan and characterized by standard biochemical tests. The efficacy of the test disinfectant formulations was assessed using standard method. Antimicrobial susceptibility profile of the clinical isolates to commonly prescribed antibiotics was determined by modified Kirby-Bauer method.Results: Salvon ® was most effective with 100% efficacy both at the manufacturer’s in-use concentration and double. Dettol® showed 76% efficacy at the  manufacturer’s in-use concentration and 100% efficacy when concentration wasdoubled. Jik® showed activity only when the manufacturer’s in-use concentration was doubled with 94% efficacy. All the isolates were resistant to Germicide® both at the manufacturer’s in-use concentration and double. The isolates (68%) were observed to be most susceptible to Ofloxacin, 44% susceptibility to Gentamicin, 10% susceptibility to Cefuroxime and Amoxycillin/Clavulanate respectively. Only 4% susceptibility was observed to cloxacillin, and 100% resistance was observed to Erythromycin.Conclusion: Savlon® was the most effective disinfectant, and Germicide® the least (even at double manufacturer’s inuse concentration). Majority of the isolates (96%) were found to be multidrug resistant.Keywords: S. aureus, Chemical disinfectants, Manufacturers’ concentration,  Microbial resistance

Aggregation of Dependent Risks Using the Koehler–Symanowski Copula Function

This study examines the Koehler and Symanovski copula function with specific marginals, such as the skew Student-t, the skew generalized secant hyperbolic, and the skew generalized exponential power distributions, in modelling financial returns and measuring dependent risks. The copula function can be specified by adding interaction terms to the cumulative distribution function for the case of independence. It can also be derived using a particular transformation of independent gamma functions. The advantage of using this distribution relative to others lies in its ability to model complex dependence structures among subsets of marginals, as we show for aggregate dependent risks of some market indices. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2005asset returns, IFM method, measures of dependence, minimum distance estimation, skew distributions,