The management and treatment of malaria

Falciparum malaria can create severe complications. Antimalarial drugs such as quinine or chloroquine help in the treatment and management to these complications. The use of chemoprophylaxis is a must for persons travelling abroad to countries subject to malaria, but one must not assume that chemoprophylaxis, even though taken regularly will protect against malaria.peer-reviewe

Public health medicine in Malta : past, present and future

This article highlights some of the significant developments in public health including the pattern of disease in past centuries when emphasis was on sanitation and control of epidemics. The improved social conditions as well as health care developments during the past decades have not only changed this pattern, but have also modified the approach to public health. The future presents us with challenges which we must face through appreciation of the issues involved and the use of appropriate strategies.peer-reviewe

Role of the medial part of the intraparietal sulcus in implementing movement direction

The contribution of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) to visually guided movements has been originally inferred from observations made in patients suffering from optic ataxia. Subsequent electrophysiological studies in monkeys and functional imaging data in humans have corroborated the key role played by the PPC in sensorimotor transformations underlying goal-directed movements, although the exact contribution of this structure remains debated. Here, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to interfere transiently with the function of the left or right medial part of the intraparietal sulcus (mIPS) in healthy volunteers performing visually guided movements with the right hand. We found that a "virtual lesion" of either mIPS increased the scattering in initial movement direction (DIR), leading to longer trajectory and prolonged movement time, but only when TMS was delivered 100-160 ms before movement onset and for movements directed toward contralateral targets. Control experiments showed that deficits in DIR consequent to mIPS virtual lesions resulted from an inappropriate implementation of the motor command underlying the forthcoming movement and not from an inaccurate computation of the target localization. The present study indicates that mIPS plays a causal role in implementing specifically the direction vector of visually guided movements toward objects situated in the contralateral hemifield

Temporal precedence of emotion over attention modulations in the lateral amygdala: Intracranial ERP evidence from a patient with temporal lobe epilepsy

Previous fMRI studies have reported mixed evidence for the influence of selective attention on amygdala responses to emotional stimuli, with some studies showing "automatic" emotional effects to threat-related stimuli without attention (or even without awareness), but other studies showing a gating of amygdala activity by selective attention with no response to unattended stimuli. We recorded intracranial local field potentials from the intact left lateral amygdala in a human patient prior to surgery for epilepsy and tested, with a millisecond time resolution, for neural responses to fearful faces appearing at either task-relevant or task-irrelevant locations. Our results revealed an early emotional effect in the amygdala arising prior to, and independently of, attentional modulation. However, at a later latency, we found a significant modulation of the differential emotional response when attention was directed toward or away from fearful faces. These results suggest separate influences of emotion and attention on amygdala activation and may help reconcile previous discrepancies concerning the relative responsiveness of the human amygdala to emotional and attentional factors

A follow-up study of 100 reading disability cases, now adults, who were associated with the Boston University Education Clinic between 1936-1948

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Infectious intestinal disease : do we know it all?

Infectious intestinal disease (IID), with associated high morbidity and considerable mortality worldwide, causes a wide spectrum of illness. This ranges from mild discomfort to illness with severe complications. The economic burden from direct and indirect costs may be high. It is acquired by oral ingestion of micro-organisms which are transmitted from person to person; via food or water or through contact with animals or contaminated objects. Viruses are the commonest cause in developed countries. In Malta, medical practitioners and laboratories are the main source of data on IID. However, under-reporting is a problem. In order to fill in the lacunae in information on the disease burden, population-based-studies are required. Along with other countries, Malta has embarked on a number of studies to describe and quantify under-reporting of IID. This may assist in strengthening the surveillance system which, in combination with other measures, should result in an improvement of the control of IID.peer-reviewe