Cross-sectional study of morbidity, morbidity-associated factors and cost of treatment in Ngaoundere, Cameroon, with implications for health policy in developing countries and development assistance policy

BACKGROUND: In a population-based epidemiological study in Ngaoundere, Cameroon, we studied cross-sectional child morbidity and the cost of necessary investigation and treatment. METHODS: Three teams of two to three health workers visited haphazardly selected households in all major housing quarters. We asked permission to enter for a health survey. Children with cough, fever or weight loss as well as sick adults were offered free-of-charge local hospital examination and treatment. RESULTS: From 177 households with 1777 persons, 51 (2.9%) persons were referred. Thirty-five of them had an undiagnosed disease threatening individual health and in many cases also public health. Seven were hospitalised, including three adults with tuberculosis. Malnutrition was diagnosed in nine small children. Four patients had AIDS, seven had malaria. Average total cost for ambulant patients was 15 USD, for hospitalised patients 110 USD. In the households, almost half of the women 16–50 years of age had no schooling. Two per cent of women and nine per cent of men were daily smokers. Coughing children were more likely than non-coughing children to live in a household with at least one smoker (OR = 3.58, 95% CI 1.72 to 7.46), and they generally lived in more poor households (P = 0.018). Twelve of 16 children with weight loss were referred from households with a high poverty score. CONCLUSIONS: Adult smoking and poverty affect children's health. The cost of hospitalisation or long-lasting therapy is beyond the means of most ordinary families. Diseases with severe consequences for public health, like tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria should have national programs with free, decentralised examination and treatment. Access to generic drugs is important. A major educational effort is needed to improve public health

Synthesis and Characterization of Rutile TiO2Nanopowders Doped with Iron Ions

Titanium dioxide nanopowders doped with different amounts of Fe ions were prepared by coprecipitation method. Obtained materials were characterized by structural (XRD), morphological (TEM and SEM), optical (UV/vis reflection and photoluminescence, and Raman), and analytical techniques (XPS and ICP-OES). XRD analysis revealed rutile crystalline phase for doped and undoped titanium dioxide obtained in the same manner. Diameter of the particles was 5–7 nm. The presence of iron ions was confirmed by XPS and ICP-OES. Doping process moved absorption threshold of TiO2into visible spectrum range. Photocatalytic activity was also checked. Doped nanopowders showed normal and up-converted photoluminescence

Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology

The best European locality for complete Eocene mammal skeletons is Grube Messel, near Darmstadt, Germany. Although the site was surrounded by a para-tropical rain forest in the Eocene, primates are remarkably rare there, and only eight fragmentary specimens were known until now. Messel has now yielded a full primate skeleton. The specimen has an unusual history: it was privately collected and sold in two parts, with only the lesser part previously known. The second part, which has just come to light, shows the skeleton to be the most complete primate known in the fossil record.We describe the morphology and investigate the paleobiology of the skeleton. The specimen is described as Darwinius masillae n.gen. n.sp. belonging to the Cercamoniinae. Because the skeleton is lightly crushed and bones cannot be handled individually, imaging studies are of particular importance. Skull radiography shows a host of teeth developing within the juvenile face. Investigation of growth and proportion suggest that the individual was a weaned and independent-feeding female that died in her first year of life, and might have attained a body weight of 650-900 g had she lived to adulthood. She was an agile, nail-bearing, generalized arboreal quadruped living above the floor of the Messel rain forest.Darwinius masillae represents the most complete fossil primate ever found, including both skeleton, soft body outline and contents of the digestive tract. Study of all these features allows a fairly complete reconstruction of life history, locomotion, and diet. Any future study of Eocene-Oligocene primates should benefit from information preserved in the Darwinius holotype. Of particular importance to phylogenetic studies, the absence of a toilet claw and a toothcomb demonstrates that Darwinius masillae is not simply a fossil lemur, but part of a larger group of primates, Adapoidea, representative of the early haplorhine diversification

An extended range of the multituberculate Kryptobaatar and distribution of mammals in the Upper Cretaceous of the Gobi Desert

The Late Cretaceous multituberculate mammal Kryptobaatar dashzevegi Kielan−Jaworowska, 1970 is the most common mammalian taxon in the Upper Cretaceous (?lower Campanian) rocks of the Djadokhta Formation at Bayan Zag¹ (= Bayn Dzak) and Tögrög (= Toogreek), and in the beds of Ukhaa Tolgod in the Gobi Desert. Kryptobaataris also common in the Bayan Mandahu Formation (equivalent of the Djadokhta Formation), Inner Mongolia, China, represented there by K. mandahuensis. Kryptobaatar has not been reported as yet from the younger (?upper Campanian) Baruungoyot Formation nor from its stratigraphic equivalents, the red beds of Hermiin Tsav (= Khermeen Tsav). In this paper we report the discovery of an incomplete skull of Kryptobaatar dashzevegi at Hermiin Tsav I. It is the second mammal species common to the Djadokhta and Baruungoyot Formations (the first being Deltatheridium pretrituberculare). We provide a corrected list of mammals found in the Late Cretaceous localities of the Gobi Desert, and we argue (albeit inconclusively), that mammal evidence shows that the Ukhaa Tolgod beds might be closer in time of deposition to the Djadokhta Formation than to that of the Baruungoyot Formation