Principal component analysis of socioeconomic factors and their association with malaria in children from the Ashanti Region, Ghana

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The socioeconomic and sociodemographic situation are important components for the design and assessment of malaria control measures. In malaria endemic areas, however, valid classification of socioeconomic factors is difficult due to the lack of standardized tax and income data. The objective of this study was to quantify household socioeconomic levels using principal component analyses (PCA) to a set of indicator variables and to use a classification scheme for the multivariate analysis of children < 15 years of age presented with and without malaria to an outpatient department of a rural hospital.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In total, 1,496 children presenting to the hospital were examined for malaria parasites and interviewed with a standardized questionnaire. The information of eleven indicators of the family's housing situation was reduced by PCA to a socioeconomic score, which was then classified into three socioeconomic status (poor, average and rich). Their influence on the malaria occurrence was analysed together with malaria risk co-factors, such as sex, parent's educational and ethnic background, number of children living in a household, applied malaria protection measures, place of residence and age of the child and the mother.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that the proportion of children with malaria decreased with increasing socioeconomic status as classified by PCA (p < 0.05). Other independent factors for malaria risk were the use of malaria protection measures (p < 0.05), the place of residence (p < 0.05), and the age of the child (p < 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The socioeconomic situation is significantly associated with malaria even in holoendemic rural areas where economic differences are not much pronounced. Valid classification of the socioeconomic level is crucial to be considered as confounder in intervention trials and in the planning of malaria control measures.</p

Anaphylaxis to IGIV in immunoglobulin-naïve common variable immunodeficiency patient in the absence of IgG anti-IgA antibodies: successful administration of low IgA-containing immunoglobulin

Although severe reactions to immunoglobulin preparations have been frequently reported, IgE antibodies against IgA are usually not investigated; and occur predominantly in previously sensitized patients. The purpose is to report anaphylaxis to IGIV during initial infusion in a patient with common variable immunodeficiency with absent IgA without prior sensitization and in the absence of detectable IgG anti-IgA antibodies, and positive skin tests for immediate hypersensitivity to four different preparations of IGIV, one subcutaneous immunoglobulin preparation, and to purified IgA. Patient was treated without side effects with IGIV preparation depleted of IgA to which immediate hypersensitivity skin test was negative. This case demonstrates that patients with CVID with no IgA and without prior exposure to immunoglobulin or plasma may develop anaphylaxis following initial infusion of IGIV, which appears to be due to IgE anti-IgA, and independent of IgG anti-IgA antibodies. Since there is no good correlation between anaphylaxis/anaphylactic reactions and IgG anti-IgA antibodies, and IgE anti-IgA antibody test is commercially unavailable, we suggest that the patients with CVID with absence of IgA might be skin tested for immediate hypersensitivity prior to initiation of immunoglobulin administration. However, such recommendation may require studies on a large number of patients with CVID with no detectable IgA