Injury and illness profiles during the 2014 South African Ironman triathlon

Background: There is a need for ongoing scrutiny of injury and illness profiles of ultra-distance athletes. This study aimed to record the medical history, illness and injuries of athletes receiving medical attention during the 2014 Ironman South Africa (IMSA) triathlon, and to investigate the temporal presentation of medical encounters.Methods: This was a retrospective, cross-sectional study. All athletes who required medical attention at the main medical tent and all of the medical posts or mobile units along the route were included in this study A total of 2 331 athletes started the race. Data included age, gender, time and stage of the race when medical attention was required, pre-race medical history and medication use, illness and injuries treated, special investigations performed, and weather conditions.Results: Overall, 179 athletes (7.7%) required medical attention. The incidence of medical encounters was 7.8%. A significantly higher percentage of younger participants encountered medical problems (P = 0.04). Most patient encounters (80.1%) occurred after the race. The median duration of treatment was 26 minutes. Medication was used by 35.1% of patients during the race. The most common medical encounters were exertion-related (71.2%), gastro-intestinal (16.4%), dermatological (11.9%), musculoskeletal (9.6%) and cardiorespiratory conditions (2.4%).Conclusion: Medical encounters occurred more frequently in later stages of the race. Most medical conditions were exertion-related. Potential higher risk may be associated with medication use, recent illness, and in younger participants. Temporal stacking of medical personnel, planning of resources according to expected conditions, preventative measures for high-risk behaviour, and on-going data collection with comparable methodology are recommended.Keywords: triathletes, medical encounters, medication use, treatment, event medical managemen

Municipal public transport in Cape Town: institutional arrangements

Paper presented at the 30th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 11-14 July 2011 "Africa on the Move", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.National legislation is placing or encouraging more and specific responsibilities on Cities as regards the planning of integrated public transport networks and the provision of municipal public transport services. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the progress and conclusions of the various processes in the City of Cape Town to meet the challenges it is bringing. It has resulted in a Council recommendation for an appropriate mechanism for the provision of municipal public transport services and draft proposals for other institutional structures to be developed.This paper was transferred from the original CD ROM created for this conference. The material was published using Adobe Acrobat 10.1.0 Technology. The original CD ROM was produced by Document Transformation Technologies Postal Address: PO Box 560 Irene 0062 South Africa. Tel.: +27 12 667 2074 Fax: +27 12 667 2766 E-mail: nigel@doctech URL: http://www.doctech.co.zaCD sponsored by TRANSNE

Public transport fares rationalisation for Cape Town

Paper presented at the 20th Annual South African Transport Conference 16 - 20 July 2001 "Meeting the transport challenges in Southern Africa", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.This paper was transferred from the original CD ROM created for this conference. The material on the CD ROM was published using Adobe Acrobat technology. The original CD ROM was produced by Document Transformation Technologies Postal Address: PO Box 560 Irene 0062 South Africa. Tel.: +27 12 667 2074 Fax: +27 12 667 2766 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.doctech.co.z

Preliminary report of the multidisciplinary research cruise on the Walvis Ridge seamounts (Atlantic Southeast-SEAFO)

A total of 10285 Km2 (2780 Nm2) were covered using the multibeam echosounder, 1381 km2 from the Ewing seamount and 8904 km2 corresponding the Valdivia Bank. The area of study was divided in the following zones: Ewing, Valdivia North, Valdivia Central, Valdivia West and Valdivia South, which correspond to the principal submarine mounts that have been cartographied. A total of 50 CTD stations were taken recording conductivity, temperature, pressure, oxygen and fluorescence data, with an initial sampling protocol consisting of two perpendicular radial over each main target seamount, in a 2’x 2’ grid. At the end of the survey, in places not initially foreseen, the hydrographic stations were placed at trawl locations. The fauna and sediment samples were obtained by carrying out a-30-minute trawl using a LOFOTEN bottom trawl net. A total of 24 trawls were carried out from which; one was null (doors snagging); another only took 18 minutes of trawling at the top of a seamount