Efficacy of Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis against malaria mosquitoes in northwestern Burkina Faso

Background: In Sub Saharan Africa malaria remains one of the major health problems and its control represents an important public health measure. Integrated malaria control comprises the use of impregnated mosquito nets and indoor residual spraying. The use of drugs to treat patients can create additional pressure on the equation of malaria transmission. Vector control may target the adult mosquitoes or their aquatic larval stages. Biological larvicides such as Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) represent a promising approach to support malaria control programs by creating additional pressure on the equation of malaria transmission. Methods: In this study we examined the efficacy of a water-dispersible granule formulation (WDG) of the biological larvicide Bti (VectoBac®) against wild Anopheles spp. larvae. Different concentrations of the larvicide were tested in standardized plastic tubs in the field against untreated controls. In weekly intervals tubs were treated with fixed concentrations of larvicide and the percentage reduction of larvae and pupae was calculated. Results: All used concentrations successfully killed 100 percent of the larvae within 24 hours, while the higher concentrations showed a slightly prolonged residual effect. Natural reconolization of larvae took place after two and three days respectively, late instar larvae were not found before 5 days after treatment. For the higher concentrations, up to three days no new larvae were found, implicating that the residual effect of WDG in tropical conditions is approximately one to two days. The overall pupae reduction in treated tubs was 98.5%. Conclusions: Biological larviciding with Bti can be a promising, additional tool in the fight against malaria in Africa. Environmental particularities in tropical Africa, first and foremost the rapid development of mosquitoes from oviposition to imago have to be taken into account before implementing such counter measures in national or international vector control programs. Nonetheless biological larviciding seems to be an appropriate measure for selected conditions, offering a significant contribution to the future of malaria control

Health coping strategies of the people vulnerable to climate change in a resource-poor rural setting in Bangladesh

BACKGROUND: Among the many challenges faced by the people of Bangladesh, the effects of climate change are discernibly threatening, impacting on human settlement, agricultural production, economic development, and human health. Bangladesh is a low-income country with limited resources; its vulnerability to climate change has influenced individuals to seek out health coping strategies. The objectives of the study were to explore the different strategies/measures people employ to cope with climate sensitive diseases and sickness. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 450 households from Rajshahi and Khulna districts of Bangladesh selected through multi-stage sampling techniques, using a semi-structured questionnaire supplemented by 12 focus group discussions and 15 key informant interviews. RESULTS: Respondents applied 22 types of primary health coping strategies to prevent climate related diseases and sickness. To cope with health problems, 80.8% used personal treatment experiences and 99.3% sought any treatments available at village level. The percentage of respondents that visited unqualified health providers to cope with climate induced health problems was quite high, namely 92.7% visited village doctors, 75.9% drug stores, and 67.3% self-medicated. Ninety per cent of the respondents took treatment from unqualified providers as their first choice. Public health facilities were the first choice of treatment for only 11.0% of respondents. On average, every household spent Bangladesh Currency Taka 9,323 per year for the treatment of climate sensitive diseases and sickness. Only 46% of health expenditure was managed from their savings. The rest, 54% expenditure, was supported by using 24 different sources, such as social capital and the selling of family assets. The rate of out-of-pocket payment was almost 100%. CONCLUSION: People are concerned about climate induced diseases and sickness and sought preventive as well as curative measures to cope with health problems. The most common and widely used climate health coping strategies among the respondents included self-medicating and seeking the health service of unqualified private health care providers. Per family spending to cope with such health problems is expensive and completely based on out of pocket payment. There is no fund pooling, community funding or health insurance program in rural areas to support the health coping of the people. Policies are needed to reduce out-of-pocket payment, to improve the quality of the unqualified providers and to extend public health services at rural areas and support climate related health coping. Collection of such knowledge on climate related health coping strategies can allow researchers to study any specific issue on health coping, and policy makers to initiate effective climate related health coping strategies for climate vulnerable people

Prevalence of anemia among Indigenous children in Latin America: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE: To describe the prevalence pattern of anemia among Indigenous children in Latin America. METHODS: PRISMA guidelines were followed. Records were identified from the databases PubMed, Google Scholar, and LILACS by two independent researchers between May and June 2021. Studies were included if the following criteria were met: a) studied Indigenous people b) was about children (from 0 to 12 years old); c) reported a prevalence estimate of anemia; d) had been conducted in any of the countries of Latin America; e) was published either in English, Portuguese, or Spanish; f) is a peer-reviewed article; and g) was published at any date. RESULTS: Out of 2,401 unique records retrieved, 42 articles met the inclusion criteria. A total of 39 different Indigenous communities were analyzed in the articles, and in 21 of them (54.0%) child anemia was a severe public health problem (prevalence ≥ 40%). Those communities were the Aymara (Bolivia); Aruak, Guaraní, Kamaiurá, Karapotó, Karibe, Kaxinanuá, Ma-cro-Jê, Suruí, Terena, Xavante (Brazil); Cabécar (Costa Rica), Achuar, Aguaruna, Awajún, Urarina, Yomybato (Peru); Piaroa and Yucpa (Venezuela); and Quechua (Peru and Bolivia). Children below two years had the highest prevalence of anemia (between 16.2% and 86.1%). Among Indigenous people, risk factors for anemia include nutrition, poor living conditions, access to health services, racism, and discrimination. Bolivia and Guatemala are scarcely studied, despite having the highest proportion of Indigenous communities in Latin America. CONCLUSIONS: Anemia constitutes a poorly documented public health problem among Indigenous children in 21 Indigenous communities in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru. In all Indigenous communities included in this study child anemia was an issue, especially in younger children

Wavelet denoising and segmentation for non-stationary signals: a reinterpretation of an iterative algorithm and application to phonoenterography

This communication deals with wavelet-based denoising techniques of non-stationary signals, in order to extract informative events. The practical application concerns physiological bowel sounds processing, with a view to medical diagnosis and monitoring. This work continues and develops a recent publication placed in the same framework [14]. The method for separating the stationary part from the non-stationary part of a signal presented by Hadjileontiadis et al. [15, 14] stems from a denoising algorithm introduced by Coifman and Wickerhauser [6, 7]. This method involves two user-tuned parameters. We propose a novel version of this algorithm, based on a fixed-point interpretation. This modification allows to eliminate one of the parameters and to determine an inferior limit for the second, depending on the probability distribution of the wavelet coefficients. This revisited version also improves significantly the computational efficiency. We present the results and compare them with other denoising algorithms, both on simulated signals and on real bowel sounds.Ce travail traite du débruitage par ondelettes de signaux non-stationnaires, afin d'extraire les événements informatifs. Le cadre applicatif retenu est le traitement de sons physiologiques abdominaux, dans un but de surveillance et de diagnostic. Ce travail reprend une étude récente située dans le même cadre [14]. La méthode itérative de séparation des parties stationnaire et non-stationnaire (transitoire) d'un signal présentée par Hadjileontiadis et al. [15,14] est une adaptation au traitement des sons physiologiques de l'algorithme de débruitage initialement décrit par Coifman et Wickerhauser [6, 7]. Cette méthode exige le réglage de deux paramètres. Nous proposons une nouvelle version de l'algorithme de Hadjileontiadis et al., basée sur une interprétation de type point fixe. Cette modification nous permet de supprimer un des paramètres de réglage et de fournir une borne inférieure du second en fonction de la distribution de probabilité des coefficients d'ondelette. Cette version revisitée de l'algorithme permet également une réduction très nette du temps de calcul. Nous présentons et comparons avec d'autres algorithmes de débruitage, les résultats du traitement de signaux simulés mais également de signaux réels qui nous intéressent plus particulièrement, à savoir les sons physiologiques abdominaux

Access to malaria treatment in young children of rural Burkina Faso

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Iterative image deconvolution using overcomplete representations

electronic version (5 pp.)International audienceWe consider the problem of deconvolving an image with a priori information on its representation in a frame. Our variational approach consists of minimizing the sum of a residual energy and a separable term penalizing each frame coef - cient individually. This penalization term may model various properties, in particular sparsity. A general iterative method is proposed and its convergence is established. The novelty of this work is to extend existing methods on two distinct fronts. First, a broad class of convex functions are allowed in the penalization term which, in turn, yields a new class of soft thresholding schemes. Second, while existing results are restricted to orthonormal bases, our algorithmic framework is applicable to much more general overcomplete representations. Numerical simulations are provided

Acceptability of impregnated school uniforms for dengue control in Thailand: a mixed methods approach

Background: As current dengue control strategies have been shown to be largely ineffective in reducing dengue in school-aged children, novel approaches towards dengue control need to be studied. Insecticide-impregnated school uniforms represent an innovative approach with the theoretical potential to reduce dengue infections in school children. Objectives: This study took place in the context of a randomised control trial (RCT) to test the effectiveness of permethrin-impregnated school uniforms (ISUs) for dengue prevention in Chachoengsao Province, Thailand. The objective was to assess the acceptability of ISUs among parents, teachers, and principals of school children involved in the trial. Methodology: Quantitative and qualitative tools were used in a mixed methods approach. Class-clustered randomised samples of school children enrolled in the RCT were selected and their parents completed 321 self-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to analyse the quantitative data. Focus group discussions and individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents, teachers, and principals. Qualitative data analysis involved content analysis with coding and thematic development. Results: The knowledge and experience of dengue was substantial. The acceptability of ISUs was high. Parents (87.3%; 95% CI 82.9–90.8) would allow their child to wear an ISU and 59.9% (95% CI 53.7–65.9) of parents would incur additional costs for an ISU over a normal uniform. This was significantly associated with the total monthly income of a household and the educational level of the respondent. Parents (62.5%; 95% CI 56.6–68.1) indicated they would be willing to recommend ISUs to other parents. Conclusions: Acceptability of the novel tool of ISUs was high as defined by the lack of concern along with the willingness to pay and recommend. Considering issues of effectiveness and scalability, assessing acceptability of ISUs over time is recommended

Lessons learned on teaching a global audience with massive open online courses (MOOCs) on health impacts of climate change: a commentary

Background: The adverse health impacts of climate change are increasing on a global level. However, knowledge about climate change and health is still unavailable to many global citizens, in particular on adaptation measures and co-benefits of health mitigation. Educational technologies, such as massive open online courses (MOOCs), may have a high potential for providing access to information about climate change links to health for a global audience. \ud Main body: We developed three MOOCs addressing the link between climate change and health to take advantage of the methodology’s broad reach and accelerate knowledge dissemination on the nexus of climate change and health. The primary objective was to translate an existing face-to-face short course that only reached a few participants on climate change and health into globally accessible learning opportunities. In the following, we share and comment on our lessons learned with the three MOOCs, with a focus on global teaching in the realm of climate change and health. Conclusions: Overall, the three MOOCs attracted a global audience with diverse educational backgrounds, and a large number of participants from low-income countries. Our experience highlights that MOOCs may play a part in global capacity building, potentially for other health-related topics as well, as we have found that our MOOCs have attracted participants within low-resource contexts. MOOCs may be an effective method for teaching and training global students on health topics, in this case on the complex links and dynamics between climate change and health and may further act as an enabler for equitable access to quality education

It starts at home? Climate policies targeting household consumption and behavioral decisions are key to low-carbon futures

Through their consumption behavior, households are responsible for 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, they are key actors in reaching the 1.5 °C goal under the Paris Agreement. However, the possible contribution and position of households in climate policies is neither well understood, nor do households receive sufficiently high priority in current climate policy strategies. This paper investigates how behavioral change can achieve a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in European high-income countries. It uses theoretical thinking and some core results from the HOPE research project, which investigated household preferences for reducing emissions in four European cities in France, Germany, Norway and Sweden. The paper makes five major points: First, car and plane mobility, meat and dairy consumption, as well as heating are the most dominant components of household footprints. Second, household living situations (demographics, size of home) greatly influence the household potential to reduce their footprint, even more than country or city location. Third, household decisions can be sequential and temporally dynamic, shifting through different phases such as childhood, adulthood, and illness. Fourth, short term voluntary efforts will not be sufficient by themselves to reach the drastic reductions needed to achieve the 1.5 °C goal; instead, households need a regulatory framework supporting their behavioral changes. Fifth, there is a mismatch between the roles and responsibilities conveyed by current climate policies and household perceptions of responsibility. We then conclude with further recommendations for research and policy

Pilot feasibility study of an emergency paediatric kit for intra-rectal quinine administration used by the personnel of community-based health care units in Senegal

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Quinine injection is the reference treatment for malaria when oral administration is impossible. Quinine can also be administered by the intra-rectal route and, over the last ten years, a series of studies have been conducted in children to determine the ideal dose and dilution in the African situation. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility and usefulness of a kit for an immediate administration of quinine alkaloids (Quinimax^®) by community health workers, prior to transfer of the child to a more sophisticated health care establishment.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A prospective, open, descriptive community intervention study conducted in northern Senegal at six village Health Units in children fewer than ten years of age with non-per-os malaria. Controls were given the routine care prior to transfer to a Health Center, and cases were in addition administered Quinimax^®(20 mg/ml) via the intra-rectal route before transfer. Patients were followed through complete cure and parasitological tests were carried out on Days 0, 3 and 7.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>134 patients (79 cases/55 controls) were recruited between November 2003 and May 2004 or October and November 2004. The two groups were comparable at inclusion. In the case group, oral drugs could be administered after a mean of <it>16.8 hours </it>versus <it>33.6 hours </it>in the control group. Time-to cure was shorter in cases than in controls. Complete parasite clearance was obtained in all patients by Day 7. The kit was well accepted by all concerned and more than 80% of community health workers judged the kit easy to use.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The emergency paediatric kit is a useful tool in the management of malaria in children who cannot be treated orally. It is feasible and easy to use for health workers in community-based Health Units where, according to the WHO, nearly 80% of malarial morbidity and mortality occurs.</p