Prevalence and Factors Associated with Intestinal Parasitic Infection among Children in an Urban Slum of Karachi

Background:Intestinal parasitic infections are endemic worldwide and have been described as constituting the greatest single worldwide cause of illness and disease. Poverty, illiteracy, poor hygiene, lack of access to potable water and hot and humid tropical climate are the factors associated with intestinal parasitic infections. The study aimed to estimate prevalence and identify factors associated with intestinal parasitic infections among 1 to 5 years old children residing in an urban slum of Karachi Pakistan. Methods And PrincipalFindings:A cross sectional survey was conducted from February to June 2006 in Ghosia Colony Gulshan Town Karachi, Pakistan. A simple random sample of 350 children aged 1-5 years was collected. The study used structured pre-tested questionnaire, anthropometric tools and stool tests to obtain epidemiological and disease data. Data were analyzed using appropriate descriptive, univariate and multivariable logistic regression methods. The mean age of participants was 2.8 years and 53% were male. The proportions of wasted, stunted and underweight children were 10.4%, 58.9% and 32.7% respectively. The prevalence of Intestinal parasitic infections was estimated to be 52.8% (95% CI: 46.1, 59.4). Giardia lamblia was the most common parasite followed by Ascaris lumbricoides, Blastocystis hominis and Hymenolepis nana. About 43% children were infected with single parasite and 10% with multiple parasites. Age {Adjusted Odds Ratio (aOR) = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.1, 1.9}, living in rented households (aOR = 2.0, 95% CI: 1.0, 3.9) and history of excessive crying (aOR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.0, 3.4) were significantly associated with intestinal parasitic infections.Conclusion:Intestinal parasites are highly prevalent in this setting and poverty was implicated as an important risk factor for infection. Effective poverty reduction programmes and promotion of deworming could reduce intestinal parasite carriage. There is a need for mass scale campaigns to create awareness about health and hygiene

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

Effect of Oxytocin Administration before Milking on Milk Production, Somatic Cells Count and fat Contents in Milk of Nili-Ravi Buffaloes

This study was escorted to know the effect of oxytocin administration before milking on milk production, somatic cells count and fat contents in milk of buffaloes. Twenty lactating Nili-Ravi buffaloes were randomly divided into two groups. Group A (n = 10) buffaloes were treated intramuscularly with 30 IU of oxytocin daily before the start of milking for the period of 7 days, whereas group B (n = 10) buffaloes were given no treatment and served as control. Milk samples were collected from all buffaloes 7 days before (Phase I), during (Phase II) and after (Phase III) the treatment. There were significantly higher (P<0.05) milk production (liters) during phase-II in group A (8.57±0.07 liters) buffaloes as compare to group B (8.40±0.04 liters) whereas non-significant differences were recorded in the mean milk production between group A and B during phase-I (8.46 vs 8.43 liters) and III (8.54 liters). Somatic cells count varied from 72.96 to 97.01 × 103 and 71.86 to 77.14 × 103 cells per ml in group A and B, respectively. Mean somatic cells count were significantly higher (P<0.05) in group A as compared to group B during phases II of study. During phase I, II and III, there were non-significant differences in fat percentage between two groups of buffaloes. It was concluded that milk production and somatic cells count in milk of Nili-Ravi buffalo were affected by oxytocin injection before milking whereas there was no effect of oxytocin on milk fat percentage

Molecular magnetic resonance imaging of acute vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 expression in a mouse model of cerebral ischemia

The pathogenesis of stroke is multifactorial, and inflammation is thought to have a critical function in lesion progression at early time points. Detection of inflammatory processes associated with cerebral ischemia would be greatly beneficial in both designing individual therapeutic strategies and monitoring outcome. We have recently developed a new approach to imaging components of the inflammatory response, namely endovascular adhesion molecule expression on the brain endothelium. In this study, we show specific imaging of vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 expression in a mouse model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), and a reduction in this inflammatory response, associated with improved behavioral outcome, as a result of preconditioning. The spatial extent of VCAM-1 expression is considerably greater than the detectable lesion using diffusion-weighted imaging (25% versus 3% total brain volume), which is generally taken to reflect the core of the lesion at early time points. Thus, VCAM-1 imaging seems to reveal both core and penumbral regions, and our data implicate VCAM-1 upregulation and associated inflammatory processes in the progression of penumbral tissue to infarction. Our findings indicate that such molecular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approaches could be important clinical tools for patient evaluation, acute monitoring of therapy, and design of specific treatment strategies

An approach to molecular imaging of atherosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular inflammation using microparticles of iron oxide☆

The rapidly evolving field of molecular imaging promises important advances in the diagnosis, characterization and pharmacological treatment of vascular disease. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides a modality that is well suited to vascular imaging as it can provide anatomical, structural and functional data on the arterial wall. Its capabilities are further enhanced by the use of a range of increasingly sophisticated contrast agents that target specific molecules, cells and biological processes. This article will discuss one such approach, using microparticles of iron oxide (MPIO)