INFANT- AND YOUNG CHILD-FEEDING PRACTICES IN MONGOLIA

For almost all infants, breastfeeding remains the simplest, healthiest and least expensive feeding method that fulfils the infants’ needs. To assess the indicators of infant and young child feeding practices among 0- 23 months old children.This cross-sectional studies was conducted all 21 provinces of the 4 economic regions of the country and capital Ulaanbaatar city. A total of 350 children aged 0-23 months were selected from sampled households. In total, 350 children aged less than two years selected through revised 125-cluster sampling using of the indicators for assessing infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices were revised during the International Consensus Meeting organized be WHO in 2007.The proportions of infants with early initiation of breastfeeding (85.5%) and exclusive breastfeeding at the age of 4-5 months (46.7%) were low and infants who received foods from four and more groups is insufficient in Western and Eastern regions. Consumption of vegetables and fruits was also insufficient. Dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products) were included in the diet of 75.6% (95%CI 69.2-81.0) of 6-23 month-old children during the previous day (p<0.003). The main problems revealed from the study were inappropriate complementary feeding practices. Our findings have highlighted the need to encourage mothers to enrich their traditional wheat- based complementary foods add more animal source foods and vegetables

Geographical and Ethnic Distribution of the HBV C/D Recombinant on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Two forms of hepatitis B virus (HBV) C/D recombinant have been identified in western China, but little is known about their geographical and ethnic distributions, and particularly the clinical significance and specific mutations in the pre-core region. To address these questions, a total of 624 chronic HBV carriers from four ethnic populations representing five provinces in western China were enrolled in this study. Genotypes were firstly determined by restriction fragment length polymorphism, and then confirmed by full or partial genome nucleotide sequencing. The distribution of HBV genotypes was as follows: HBV/B: 40 (6.4%); HBV/C: 221 (35.4%); HBV/D: 39 (6.3%); HBV/CD: 324 (51.9%). In the 324 HBV C/D recombinant infections, 244 (75.3%) were infected with the “CD1” and 80 (24.7%) were infected with the “CD2.” The distribution of HBV genotypes exhibited distinct patterns in different regions and ethnic populations. Geographically, the C/D recombinant was the most prevalent HBV strain on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Ethnically, the C/D recombinant had a higher prevalence in Tibetan patients than in other populations. Clinically, patients with HBV/CD1 showed significantly lower levels of serum total bilirubin than patients with HBV/C2. The prevalence of HBeAg was comparable between patients with HBV/CD1 and HBV/C2 (63.3% vs 50.0%, P = 0.118) whether patients were taken together or stratified by age into three groups (65.6% vs 58.8% in <30 years, P = 0.758; 61.9% vs 48.0% in 30–50 years, P = 0.244; 64.3% vs 33.3%, P = 0.336). Virologically HBV/CD1 had a significantly lower frequency of G1896A than HBV/C2. In conclusion, the HBV C/D recombinant is restricted to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in western China and is found predominantly in Tibetans. The predominance of the premature pre-core stop mutation G1896A in patients with the HBV C/D recombinant may account for the higher prevalence of HBeAg in these patients

Openness and quality in Asian distance education : sub-project 4; distance education for emerging health issues in Nomadic Mongolia

Annex 3 of the Final technical reportThe vast territory, extreme climate, and small, widely dispersed, nomadic population of Mongolia pose challenges to health care services and education. This sub-project explored optimal design and implementation strategies for ICT-based health education at a distance, and investigated the effectiveness of ICT-based Distance Education (DE) in training nurses and communities about emerging health issues. Based on the results, the adoption of DE for graduate training is being considered at the Health Sciences University of Mongolia (HSUM), and the use of TV programs for health education for rural citizens has been introduced to officers in charge of public health and education