Alternative Organic Liquid Fertilizer from Meatball Water Decoction with Banana Humps Activator

This study aimed to determine the effect of the use of EM4 and Local Microorganism (LM) activators from banana hump (Kepok banana, Raja banana, and Ambon banana) on the manufacture of organic liquid fertilizer derived from waste meatball water stew. The research method used in this study was Completely Randomized Design (CRD) consisting of 4 treatments and three replications, namely: P1 EM4, P2 (Local Microorganism from Kepok banana hump ), P2 (Local Microorganism from Ambon banana hump), P3 (Local Microorganism from Raja banana hump). In this study testing the levels of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Carbon, and pH levels in organic liquid fertilizer from boiled meatball water. The data obtained from this study were analyzed using Complete Randomized Design and Duncan's advanced test. The results of the addition of EM4 activator and banana hump MOL on the manufacture of organic liquid fertilizer from meatball decoction water showed no significant effect (P> 0.05) on N, K, and pH levels on fertilizers. The results showed a significant effect (P <0.05) on the P content of fertilizer. The highest C content was found in P2, while the highest C / N ratio was found in P0

Clinical standards for drug-susceptible TB in children and adolescents

BACKGROUND: These clinical standards aim to provide guidance for diagnosis, treatment, and management of drug-susceptible TB in children and adolescents. METHODS: Fifty-two global experts in paediatric TB participated in a Delphi consensus process. After eight rounds of revisions, 51/52 (98%) participants endorsed the final document. RESULTS: Eight standards were identified: Standard 1, Age and developmental stage are critical considerations in the assessment and management of TB; Standard 2, Children and adolescents with symptoms and signs of TB disease should undergo prompt evaluation, and diagnosis and treatment initiation should not depend on microbiological confirmation; Standard 3, Treatment initiation is particularly urgent in children and adolescents with presumptive TB meningitis and disseminated (miliary) TB; Standard 4, Children and adolescents should be treated with an appropriate weight-based regimen; Standard 5, Treating TB infection (TBI) is important to prevent disease; Standard 6, Children and adolescents should receive home-based/community-based treatment support whenever possible; Standard 7, Children, adolescents, and their families should be provided age-appropriate support to optimise engagement in care and clinical outcomes; and Standard 8, Case reporting and contact tracing should be conducted for each child and adolescent. CONCLUSION: These consensus-based clinical standards, which should be adapted to local contexts, will improve the care of children and adolescents affected by TB.National Institutes of HealthRevisión por pare

Clinical standards for drug-susceptible TB in children and adolescents.

BACKGROUND: These clinical standards aim to provide guidance for diagnosis, treatment, and management of drug-susceptible TB in children and adolescents.METHODS: Fifty-two global experts in paediatric TB participated in a Delphi consensus process. After eight rounds of revisions, 51/52 (98%) participants endorsed the final document.RESULTS: Eight standards were identified: Standard 1, Age and developmental stage are critical considerations in the assessment and management of TB; Standard 2, Children and adolescents with symptoms and signs of TB disease should undergo prompt evaluation, and diagnosis and treatment initiation should not depend on microbiological confirmation; Standard 3, Treatment initiation is particularly urgent in children and adolescents with presumptive TB meningitis and disseminated (miliary) TB; Standard 4, Children and adolescents should be treated with an appropriate weight-based regimen; Standard 5, Treating TB infection (TBI) is important to prevent disease; Standard 6, Children and adolescents should receive home-based/community-based treatment support whenever possible; Standard 7, Children, adolescents, and their families should be provided age-appropriate support to optimise engagement in care and clinical outcomes; and Standard 8, Case reporting and contact tracing should be conducted for each child and adolescent.CONCLUSION: These consensus-based clinical standards, which should be adapted to local contexts, will improve the care of children and adolescents affected by TB

Infant BCG vaccination and risk of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis throughout the life course: a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: BCG vaccines are given to more than 100 million children every year, but there is considerable debate regarding the effectiveness of BCG vaccination in preventing tuberculosis and death, particularly among older children and adults. We therefore aimed to investigate the age-specific impact of infant BCG vaccination on tuberculosis (pulmonary and extrapulmonary) development and mortality. METHODS: In this systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Web of Science, BIOSIS, and Embase without language restrictions for case-contact cohort studies of tuberculosis contacts published between Jan 1, 1998, and April 7, 2018. Search terms included "mycobacterium tuberculosis", "TB", "tuberculosis", and "contact". We excluded cohort studies that did not provide information on BCG vaccination or were done in countries that did not recommend BCG vaccination at birth. Individual-level participant data for a prespecified list of variables, including the characteristics of the exposed participant (contact), the index case, and the environment, were requested from authors of all eligible studies. Our primary outcome was a composite of prevalent (diagnosed at or within 90 days of baseline) and incident (diagnosed more than 90 days after baseline) tuberculosis in contacts exposed to tuberculosis. Secondary outcomes were pulmonary tuberculosis, extrapulmonary tuberculosis, and mortality. We derived adjusted odds ratios (aORs) using mixed-effects, binary, multivariable logistic regression analyses with study-level random effects, adjusting for the variable of interest, baseline age, sex, previous tuberculosis, and whether data were collected prospectively or retrospectively. We stratified our results by contact age and Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection status. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42020180512. FINDINGS: We identified 14 927 original records from our database searches. We included participant-level data from 26 cohort studies done in 17 countries in our meta-analysis. Among 68 552 participants, 1782 (2·6%) developed tuberculosis (1309 [2·6%] of 49 686 BCG-vaccinated participants vs 473 [2·5%] of 18 866 unvaccinated participants). The overall effectiveness of BCG vaccination against all tuberculosis was 18% (aOR 0·82, 95% CI 0·74-0·91). When stratified by age, BCG vaccination only significantly protected against all tuberculosis in children younger than 5 years (aOR 0·63, 95% CI 0·49-0·81). Among contacts with a positive tuberculin skin test or IFNγ release assay, BCG vaccination significantly protected against tuberculosis among all participants (aOR 0·81, 95% CI 0·69-0·96), participants younger than 5 years (0·68, 0·47-0·97), and participants aged 5-9 years (0·62, 0·38-0·99). There was no protective effect among those with negative tests, unless they were younger than 5 years (0·54, 0·32-0·90). 14 cohorts reported on whether tuberculosis was pulmonary or extrapulmonary (n=57 421). BCG vaccination significantly protected against pulmonary tuberculosis among all participants (916 [2·2%] in 41 119 vaccinated participants vs 334 [2·1%] in 16 161 unvaccinated participants; aOR 0·81, 0·70-0·94) but not against extrapulmonary tuberculosis (106 [0·3%] in 40 318 vaccinated participants vs 38 [0·2%] in 15 865 unvaccinated participants; 0·96, 0·65-1·41). In the four studies with mortality data, BCG vaccination was significantly protective against death (0·25, 0·13-0·49). INTERPRETATION: Our results suggest that BCG vaccination at birth is effective at preventing tuberculosis in young children but is ineffective in adolescents and adults. Immunoprotection therefore needs to be boosted in older populations. FUNDING: National Institutes of Health

Risk of infection and disease with Mycobacterium tuberculosis among children identified through prospective community-based contact screening in Indonesia

Full text Embargoed until: 2016-02-21OBJECTIVE: To identify characteristics of the child contact, index case or environment that are associated with infection or tuberculosis in child contacts in an urban community in Indonesia. METHOD: Children who were close contacts of an index case with pulmonary tuberculosis were screened for infection and disease in Yogyakarta, Indonesia from August 2010 to December 2012. Data of the index case and child were collected prospectively, and all child contacts had clinical assessment, tuberculin skin test (TST) and chest X-ray performed. Those with clinically suspected tuberculosis also had sputum examined by Xpert MTB/RIF and culture. Child contacts were managed according to national guidelines, followed for 12 months and had a final classification of either tuberculosis 'disease', latent tuberculous infection (LTBI) or 'exposed only'. RESULTS: About 269 children of 141 index cases were investigated. Final classification was tuberculosis in 25 (9%) and LTBI in 121 (45%). The risk of infection was significantly greater if the source case was female (AOR 1.7; 95% CI: 1.0-2.8), had sputum smear-positive tuberculosis (AOR 3.0; 95% CI 1.5-6.0) or slept in the same room (AOR 1.7, 95% CI 1.0-2.9). A positive TST was independently associated with a diagnosis of tuberculosis (AOR 7.3; 95% CI 2.4-22). CONCLUSION: This study highlights the high risk and the risk factors associated with tuberculosis and LTBI among child contacts in Indonesia

Cough Sound Analysis - A new tool for diagnosing penumonia

Pneumonia kills over 1,800,000 children annually throughout the world. Prompt diagnosis and proper treatment are essential to prevent these unnecessary deaths. Reliable diagnosis of childhood pneumonia in remote regions is fraught with difficulties arising from the lack of field-deployable imaging and laboratory facilities as well as the scarcity of trained community healthcare workers. In this paper, we present a pioneering class of enabling technology addressing both of these problems. Our approach is centered on automated analysis of cough and respiratory sounds, collected via microphones that do not require physical contact with subjects. We collected cough sounds from 91 patients suspected of acute respiratory illness such as pneumonia, bronchiolitis and asthma. We extracted mathematical features from cough sounds and used them to train a Logistic Regression classifier. We used the clinical diagnosis provided by the paediatric respiratory clinician as the gold standard to train and validate our classifier against. The methods proposed in this paper could separate pneumonia from other diseases at a sensitivity and specificity of 94% and 75% respectively, based on parameters extracted from cough sounds alone. Our method has the potential to revolutionize the management of childhood pneumonia in remote regions of the world

Wavelet augmented cough analysis for rapid childhood pneumonia diagnosis

Pneumonia is the cause of death for over a million children each year around the world, largely in resource poor regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and remote Asia. One of the biggest challenges faced by pneumonia endemic countries is the absence of a field deployable diagnostic tool that is rapid, low-cost and accurate. In this paper, we address this issue and propose a method to screen pneumonia based on the mathematical analysis of cough sounds. In particular, we propose a novel cough feature inspired by wavelet-based crackle detection work in lung sound analysis. These features are then combined with other mathematical features to develop an automated machine classifier, which can separate pneumonia from a range of other respiratory diseases. Both cough and crackles are symptoms of pneumonia, but their existence alone is not a specific enough marker of the disease. In this paper, we hypothesize that the mathematical analysis of cough sounds allows us to diagnose pneumonia with sufficient sensitivity and specificity. Using a bedside microphone, we collected 815 cough sounds from 91 patients with respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia, asthma, and bronchitis. We extracted wavelet features from cough sounds and combined them with other features such as Mel Cepstral coefficients and non-Gaussianity index. We then trained a logistic regression classifier to separate pneumonia from other diseases. As the reference standard, we used the diagnosis by physicians aided with laboratory and radiological results as deemed necessary for a clinical decision. The methods proposed in this paper achieved a sensitivity and specificity of 94% and 63%, respectively, in separating pneumonia patients from non-pneumonia patients based on wavelet features alone. Combining the wavelets with features from our previous work improves the performance further to 94% and 88% sensitivity and specificity. The performance far surpasses that of the WHO criteria currently in common use in resourc- -limited settings