Pertussis in children in Bloemfontein, South Africa: A 7-year retrospective review

Background. Pertussis vaccination in the 1950s was associated with a decrease in the incidence of pertussis. A resurgence of pertussis has been documented, mainly in well-resourced countries since the 1990s. The burden of pertussis has not been well described in South Africa (SA). Epidemiological data are important for rational implementation of vaccination strategies.Objective. To describe the morbidity and mortality of children with pertussis admitted to public sector hospitals in Bloemfontein, SA.Methods. A retrospective descriptive hospital-based study of children diagnosed with pertussis by polymerase chain reaction testing from April 2008 to March 2015.Results. One hundred and eighty-three laboratory results confirmed pertussis; 105/183 children (57.4%) were <18 weeks old. Clinical data, available for 154/183 cases (84.2%), showed that 141/154 children (91.6%) were admitted to hospital, of whom one-third required intensive care. Hospital admission was associated with young age (p<0.001). The median hospital stay was 9.0 days (interquartile range 6 - 14.5), and hospital stay was longer for children aged <18 weeks than for those aged ≥18 weeks (p=0.006; 95% confidence interval 1 - 5 days). Of the 154 children, 139 (90.3%) had a cough, which lasted ≤7 days in 110/137 cases (80.3%). The total white cell count was ≥20.0 × 109/L in 58/144 cases (40.3%). Eight children (5.2%) died.Conclusions. This case series highlights the importance of pertussis as a problem in children. Most children had a history of cough lasting ≤7 days. Young infants were most severely affected, requiring prolonged hospital stay, often with admission to a paediatric intensive care unit

Pertussis in children in Bloemfontein, South Africa: A 7-year retrospective review

Background. Pertussis vaccination in the 1950s was associated with a decrease in the incidence of pertussis. A resurgence of pertussis has been documented, mainly in well-resourced countries since the 1990s. The burden of pertussis has not been well described in South Africa (SA). Epidemiological data are important for rational implementation of vaccination strategies.Objective. To describe the morbidity and mortality of children with pertussis admitted to public sector hospitals in Bloemfontein, SA.Methods. A retrospective descriptive hospital-based study of children diagnosed with pertussis by polymerase chain reaction testing from April 2008 to March 2015.Results. One hundred and eighty-three laboratory results confirmed pertussis; 105/183 children (57.4%) were <18 weeks old. Clinical data, available for 154/183 cases (84.2%), showed that 141/154 children (91.6%) were admitted to hospital, of whom one-third required intensive care. Hospital admission was associated with young age (p<0.001). The median hospital stay was 9.0 days (interquartile range 6 - 14.5), and hospital stay was longer for children aged <18 weeks than for those aged ≥18 weeks (p=0.006; 95% confidence interval 1 - 5 days). Of the 154 children, 139 (90.3%) had a cough, which lasted ≤7 days in 110/137 cases (80.3%). The total white cell count was ≥20.0 × 109/L in 58/144 cases (40.3%). Eight children (5.2%) died.Conclusions. This case series highlights the importance of pertussis as a problem in children. Most children had a history of cough lasting ≤7 days. Young infants were most severely affected, requiring prolonged hospital stay, often with admission to a paediatric intensive care unit.

Risk factors for coronary heart disease in the Indians of Durban

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major problem in migrant Indians throughout the world. In South Africa it has reached 'epidemic' proportions. A field survey was conducted among Indians in the metropolitan area of Durban to determine the prevalence and known risk factors for CHD. In a study of 778 subjects aged 15 - 69 years (408 men), 15,3% (sex and age adjusted 13,4%) had a history of CHD. The important risk factors in men were hypercholesterolaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia, diabetes, and smoking, and in women diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia, and hypertriglyceridaemia. The minor risk factors were hyperuricaemia, sedentary occupation, obesity in women and a positive family history of CHD. A study of the major risk factors leading to CHD showed that 52% (sex and age adjusted 45,5%) had at least one major risk factor at the higher (level A) and 68% (sex and age adjusted 61,9%) at the lower (level B) risk levels. Diabetes mellitus was strongly associated with a positive history of CHD. In 47,6% (sex and age adjusted 48,2%) of the total group resting ECG abnormalities were found that could be coded. Because of the severe nature of CHD in the migrant Indian, an immediate and intensive programme of primary prevention of CHD risk factors should be instituted

Generic advertising of dairy products : the emotional route to consumer engagement

The study investigated South African dairy consumers’ emotive reactions associated with seven generic communication messages. Based on the findings of the study, the authors made recommendations on the three messages with the highest potential to engage consumers in a national dairy marketing campaign. The participants consisted of 81 South African dairy consumers from different backgrounds in terms of age, race and gender. Data were collected in the Gauteng Province using Computer-Aided Web Interviewing (CAWI). The Advertisement Self-Assessment Manikin (AdSAM), a non-verbal measure of emotions grounded in the Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance theory was used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that certain messages are more conducive to emotive reactions. When advertisements are emotionally-charged, their potential to engage consumers is higher

Structure Functions of the Nucleon in a Statistical Model

Deep inelastic scattering is considered in a statistical model of the nucleon. This incorporates certain features which are absent in the standard parton model such as quantum statistical correlations which play a role in the propagation of particles when considering Feynman diagrams containing internal lines. The inclusion of the ${\cal O}(\alpha_{s})$ corrections in our numerical calculations allows a good fit to the data for $x\geq 0.25$. The fit corresponds to values of temperature and chemical potential of approximately $T=0.067$ GeV and $\mu=0.133$ GeV. The latter values of parameters, however, give rise, for all $x$, to a large value for $R=\sigma_{L}/\sigma_{T}$.Comment: 16 pages TeX, 11 figures available as Postscript files, University of Bielefeld preprint BI-TP 93/3

Vitamine A et infection pasteurellique expérimentale du porc. Fluctuations de l’activité cholinestérasique érythrocytaire et plasmatique

Ruckebusch Yves, Jean-Blain Marcel, Oudar Jean, Joubert L. Vitamine A et infection Pasteurellique expérimentale du Porc. Fluctuations de l’activité cholinestérasique érythrocytaire et plasmique. In: Bulletin de l'Académie Vétérinaire de France tome 113 n°7, 1960. pp. 391-397

Comparison of Thermoresponsive Hydrogels Synthesized by Conventional Free Radical and RAFT Polymerization

We compared the influence of the polymerization mechanism onto the physical characteristics of thermoresponsive hydrogels. The Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) hydrogels were successfully synthesized using reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) and free radical polymerization (FRP). The gels were prepared while using different crosslinker feed and monomer concentration. The swelling, dye release, and hydrolytic stability of the gels were investigated in water, or in representative komostrope and chaotrope salt solutions at room temperature and at 37 ◦C. It was found that the swelling ratio (SR) of the RAFT gels was significantly higher than that of the FRP gels; however, an increased crosslinking density resulted in a decrease of the SR of the RAFT gels as compared to the corresponding gels that are made by FRP, which indicates the limitation of the cross-linking efficiency that is attained in RAFT polymerization. Additionally, an increased monomer concentration decreased the SR of the RAFT gels, whereas a similar SR was observed for the FRP gels. However, the SR of both RAFT and FRP gels in NaSCN and Na2SO4 solutions were similar. Finally, the rate of dye release was significantly slower from the RAFT gels than the FRP gels and the hydrolytic stability of the RAFT gels was lower than that of FRP gels in water, but maintained similar stability in Na2SO4 and NaSCN solutions