Correlation of Knowledge, Attitude, and Healthy Behavior among Children with Autism in Yogyakarta

Background: Over the past two decades, autism has emerged as a major public health concern in Indonesia. Although known for more than fifty years as one of the most severe childhood neuropsychiatric disorders, it was thought to be quite rare. Individuals with autism have impairments in social interaction and communication and exhibit some rote or repetitive, often self stimulatory, behavior. In each of these dimensions, the impairment can range from mild to profound. This study aimed to determine the correlation between knowledge, attitude, and healthy behavior among children with autism in Yogyakarta. Subjects and Method: This was a mixed study conducted at SLB Autis Bina Anggita, Yogyakarta. A total of 13 key informants including children with autism, teachers, and parents. The dependent variable was healthy behavior. The independent variables were knowledge and attitude. The data were collected by indepth interview and questionnaire. Quantitative data were analyzed by Spearman correlation. Results: 11 of 13 children with autism had good knowledge about autism. All children had good attitude and health behavior. The correlations of knowledge, attitude, and health behavior were not statistically significant. Conclusion: The correlations of knowledge, attitude, and health behavior are statistically non-significant. Keywords: knowledge, attitude, health behavior, children, autism

Age-specific prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum among six populations with limited histories of exposure to endemic malaria.

The age-specific prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum parasitemia among residents of six villages in northeastern Irian Jaya, Indonesia, has been measured for a period of five years. All study subjects were transmigrants from Java living in Irian Jaya for three weeks to 72 months, depending upon the village and point of measurement. Fifteen separate estimates of prevalence were obtained from 4,554 Giemsa-stained thick blood films from 91 to 701 people (mean sample size = 304) among the six villages. The prevalence of parasitemia among people who had lived in Irian Jaya for less than one year did not decrease as a function of age, except in one village at eight months. In contrast, after 16 months to two years or more of residence, the prevalence of parasitemia decreased markedly with increasing age beyond 6-10 or 11-15 years. Social, behavioral, or entomologic characteristics of these populations did not explain the decreasing prevalence of parasitemia with age. An age-dependent naturally acquired protective immunity appeared to develop in all of these villages after 1-2 years of exposure to hyperendemic malaria

Malaria vaccine study site in Irian Jaya, Indonesia: Plasmodium falciparum incidence measurements and epidemiologic considerations in sample size estimation.

Malaria epidemiologic and entomologic studies were performed during both the high transmission and low transmission seasons to characterize the Plasmodium falciparum malaria transmission at a proposed malaria vaccine trial site in Irian Jaya, Indonesia. The study population consisted of two subsets: native Irianese men with lifelong exposure to malaria and transmigrants who arrived from a nonmalarious area 2.5 years before the start of the study. All subjects received a radical cure for malaria and were then monitored weekly by blood film. Both P. falciparum malaria attack rates and incidence densities were calculated; transmigrants had a significantly higher rate (P = 0.003) than the Irianese during the low transmission season study (20-weeks long) but not during the high transmission season study (12-weeks long). Lack of exposure-induced immunity left the transmigrants at a minimum 17-25% greater relative risk of becoming parasitemic compared with the Irianese during the low transmission season study. During the high transmission season study, 50% of the transmigrants were P. falciparum positive by week 6 and 50% of the Irianese by week 9. During the low transmission season, 50% of the transmigrants were positive by week 10 and 43% of the Irianese were positive by week 17. Entomologic studies showed that Anopheles koliensis was the predominant vector (> 98% of anopheline catch). Entomologic inoculation rates for P. falciparum were 0.018 and 0.39 infective bites/person/night for the low and high transmission seasons, respectively. New P. vivax cases represented between 16% and 42% of all initial malaria cases.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS

Halofantrine and primaquine for radical cure of malaria in Irian Jaya, Indonesia

The combination of halofantrine and primaquine therapies was evaluated as a regimen for achieving radical cure of falciparum or vivax malaria in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, and compared with combined chloroquine and primaquine therapies. The patients who volunteered for the study {adult, male, Indonesian immigrants with no previous exposure to endemic malaria, normal glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) activity, uncomplicated malaria illness, no prior use of antimalarials, and parasitaemia s of 0.001%-1.0%} were randomized to receive either halofantrine (24 mg base/kg bodyweight, in three equal doses over 12 h) or chloroquine (25 mg base/kg bodyweight over 48 h, in doses of 10, 10 and 5 mg base/kg at 24-h intervals). Each patient also received concurrent daily primaquine (0.5 mg base/kg bodyweight) for 14 days followed by the same dose on alternate days to day 28. A recurrent parasitaemia during the 28 days of follow-up constituted drug failure. Of the 40 cases of falciparum malaria and 26 cases of vivax malaria treated with halofantrine-primaquine, none had a recurrent parasitaemia (100% efficacy). In contrast, 20 of 30 patients with falciparum malaria and three of 27 with vivax malaria had a recurrent parasitaemia after chloroquine-prim aquine, giving efficacies of 33% and 89%, respectively. Halofantrine-primaquine was significantly more effective than chloroquine-primaquine against falciparum malaria (P\u3c0.001) but was similarly efficacious again st vivax malaria (P=0.23). On average, fever associated with falciparum or vivax malaria cleared 17 h faster with halofantrine-prim aquine (P\u3c0.01) although there were no significant differences (P\u3c0.4) in parasite-clearance times between the two regimens. The halofantrine-prim aquine regimen was also associated with a more rapid and significant declin e in malaria-related physical complaints

Halofantrine and primaquine for radical cure of malaria in Irian Jaya, Indonesia.

The combination of halofantrine and primaquine therapies was calculated as a regimen for achieving radical curve of falciparum or vivax malaria in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, and compared with combined chloroquine and primaquine therapies. The patients who volunteered for the study [adult, male, Indonesian immigrants with no previous exposure to endemic malaria, normal glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) activity, uncomplicated malaria illness, no prior use of antimalarials, and parasitaemias of 0.001%-1.1%] were randomized to receive either halofantrine (24 mg base/kg bodyweight, in three equal doses over 12 h) or chloroquine (25 mg base/kg bodyweight over 48 h, in doses of 10, 10 and 5 mg base/kg at 24-h intervals). Each patient also received concurrent daily primaquine (0.5 mg base/kg bodyweight) for 14 days followed by the same dose on alternate days to day 28. A recurrent parasitaemia during the 28 days of follow-up constituted drug failure. Of the 40 cases of falciparum malaria and 26 cases of vivax malaria treated with halofantrine-primaquine, none had a recurrent parasitaemia (100% efficacy). In contrast, 20 of 30 patients with falciparum malaria and three of 27 with vivax malaria had recurrent parasitaemias after chloroquine-primaquine, giving efficacies of 33% and 89%, respectively. Halofantrine-primaquine was significantly more effective than chloroquine-primaquine against falciparum malaria (P < 0.001) but was similarly efficacious against vivax malaria (P = 0.23). On average, fever associated with falciparum or vivax malaria cleared 17 h faster with halofantrine-primaquine (P < 0.01) although there were no significant differences (P > 0.4) in parasite-clearance times between the two regimens. The halofantrine-primaquine regimen was also associated with a more rapid and significant decline in malaria-related physical complaints

Global occorrence of Plasmodium vivax-like human malaria parasite

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Division of Parasitic Diseases. Malaria Branch. Atlanta GA, USA.Centers for Disease Control.Division of Parasitic Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases. Malaria Branch. Atlanta, Georgia, USA.Ministério da Saúde .Fundação Serviços de Saúde Pública. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Belém, PA, Brasil.Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research. Goroka, Papua New Guinea.Hôpital Claude Bernard. Paris. France.Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research. Goroka, Papua New Guinea.Ministry of Health. Republic of Indonesia. Jayapura.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Division of Parasitic Diseases. Malaria Branch. Atlanta GA, USA.A Plasmodium vivax-like human malaria parasite was recently identified from Madang, a holoendemic malarious region in Papua New Guinea. The complete nucleotide sequence of the circumsporozoite (CS) protein gene of this parasite is presented here. The CS protein of this parasite has an 11-mer repeat sequence and is different from the other known CS protein genes of human malaria parasites. However, it is identical to the CS protein gene of a monkey malaria parasite, Plasmodium simiovale. This P. vivax-like malaria parasite was found in Sepik, another malarious region of Papua New Guinea, and in Brazil, Indonesia, and Madagascar. No pure isolate of this parasite was identified. Specific oligonucleotide probes were used to determine relative proportion of the P. vivax-like parasite in P. vivax (type 1 and type 2) mixed field isolates. Compared with P. vivax or Plasmodium falciparum, the circumsporozoite protein of P. vivax-like parasites showed markedly less polymorphism