Clinico-demographic characterization of Cutaneous leishmaniasis in patients reporting to two hospitals in Matara and Hambantota districts, Sri Lanka

Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is an established disease in Sri Lanka.Objectives: This study aimed to characterize clinico-demographic pattern of CL, in patients reported to District General Hospital (DGH) Matara and Base Hospital (BH) Tangalle, which report about 100 new cases monthly.Methods: Clinico-demographic findings of 47 CL confirmed patients (>18 years; Slit skin smears (SSS) and/or PCR positive) from preliminary data of a cross sectional study carried out at DGH Matara and BH Tangalle from August/2018 to January /2019 were analysed. Interviewer administered questionnaire was used to gather the demographic data.Results: Median age was 43 years. Out of the 13 cases from DGH Matara, four reported from Urugamuwa and one each from other areas of the district. Of the 34 cases from BHTangalle, 12 were from Beliaththa. Eight SSS negatives became PCR positive and one PCR negative was SSS positive. Majority of the lesions were single (n=40, 85.1%), non-tender (n=38, 80.8%), non-itchy (n=34, 72.3%) and small (< 2cm, n=36, 76.6%) ulcerated nodules (n=14, 29.8%) in upper limbs (n=25, 53.1%) with parasitic grading of 1+ (n=20, 42.5%). Nine patients reported persistent itching without any evidence of secondary pathology. Clinical evidence of secondary bacterial infection presented in four patients and out of them, two had painful lesions. Thirty two lesions were <4 months duration. In addition to ulcerated nodules and plaques, three out of nine papules were ulcerated within 4 months’ by history. Two patients had a family member with CL.Conclusions: Ulceration of papules is a novel observation. Urugamuwa is a possible emerging focus of CL in Matara where Dickwella is the known hot spot. Beliathta could be a main disease focus in Hambantota. This preliminary study based on a smaller sample size needs to be validated with a bigger sample size

The Effect of Macroeconomic Variables on Stock Prices in Emerging Sri Lankan Stock Market

This study investigates the effects of macroeconomic variables on stock prices in emerging Sri Lankan stock market using monthly data for the period from September 1991 to December 2002. The multivariate regression was run using eight macroeconomic variables for each individual stock. The null hypothesis which states that money supply, exchange rate, inflation rate and interest rate variables collectively do not accord any impact on equity prices is rejected at 0.05 level of significance in all stocks. The results indicate that most of the companies report a higher R 2 which justifies higher explanatory power of macroeconomic variables in explaining stock prices. Consistent with similar results of the developed as well as emerging market studies, inflation rate and exchange rate react mainly negatively to stock prices in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). The negative effect of Treasury bill rate implies that whenever the interest rate on Treasury securities rise, investors tend to switch out of stocks causing stock prices to fall. However, lagged money supply variables do not appear to have a strong prediction of movements of stock prices while stocks do not provide effective hedge against inflation specially in Manufacturing, Trading and Diversified sectors in the CSE. These findings hold practical implications for policy makers, stock market regulators, investors and stock market analysts. 1