Mothers’ Knowledge, Attitude and Practice regarding Prevention of Diarrhea among Children: An Empirical Investigation

The descriptive type of cross-sectional study was carried out to find out the mothers’ knowledge, attitude and practice regarding the prevention of diarrhea among children at Kamarpara Slum Area, Dhaka. In this study, 110 mothers were interviewed. It was found from the current study that the age distribution of the study population, out of total 110 respondents, 46.4% of the respondents belongs to the age group 20-29 years. The study showed that only 47.3% of women have completed primary education, majority of the respondents (69.1%) lived in kacha house, above half of the respondents (62.7%) agreed that diarrhea means passage of loose or watery stools >3 times in 24 hours, majority of the respondents (46.4%) got information from TV, most of the respondent’s children (88.2%)  suffered from diarrhea, most of the respondents (70.9%) had given EBF to their child during diarrhea where as 29.1% didn’t practice EBF during diarrhea. Most of the respondents (79.1%) were aware  about the causes of diarrhea,74.5% respondents had knowledge on danger signs of diarrhea, 25.5% didn’t know about danger signs of diarrhea.85.5% respondents said that diarrhea can be prevented by drinking clean water.75.5% respondents said that hand washing prevents diarrhea,46.4% respondents drinks water from Tube-well, majority of the respondents (55.5%) used sanitary latrine, 36.4% used  non-sanitary latrine,20% respondents didn’t wash their hands properly,33.6% washed their hands with plain water,58.2% respondents placing child’s stool in toilet, 87.3% respondents gave ORS to their child during diarrhea, more than half of the respondents didn’t know the preservation time of ORS, only 22.7% said the preservation time of ORSis10-12 hours. 81.8% of the respondents cut nail timely. In conclusion the knowledge of mothers on diarrhea was poor there is a need for extensive educational interventions of mothers about childhood diarrhea to reduce the suffering from dehydration of children

Phytochemical analysis, antioxidant, antibacterial and antidiarrheal activities of Limnophila repens

The study was carried out to determine the phytochemical content, antioxidant, antibacterial and antidiarrheal activity of methanolic extract of whole plant of Limnophila repens. The total phenolic, flavonoids, flavonols, tannins, β-carotene, lycopene, chlorophyll-α, and chlorophyll-β contents were found to be 65.21 ± 0.004 mg GAE/g , 44.83 ± 0.003 mg QE/g , 17.21 ± 0.002 mg QE/g, 56.27 ± 0.002 mg GAE/g , 1.32 ± 0.01 µg/g, 0.93 ± 0.012 µg/g, 11.85 ± 0.04 mg/g and 9.69 ± 0.037 mg/g, respectively. In vitro antioxidant potential of L. repens was assessed using various methods like by 2,2-diphenyl-1 picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), hydroxyl radical scavenging assay, reducing power assay, FRAP assay and thiobarbituric acid assay. IC50 values of the aforesaid tests were found to be 2.33 mg/ml, 442.31 µg/ml, 374 µg/ml, 55.09 µg/ml, and 4.30 mg/ml, respectively. The total antioxidant capacity was observed 140.7 ± 0.004 mg/g AAE. Aantibacterial activity of the methanolic extracts of whole plant of L. repens was evaluated using the disk diffusion method. The plant extract didn’t show any activity against Gram-positive (except Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative bacteria. Finally, castor oil induced method was conducted to investigate the antidiarrheal activity of L. repens. At the dose of 400 mg/kg, the plant extract (35.62% inhibition of diarrhea) exhibited stronger effect compared to standard drug, loperamide (27.4% inhibition of diarrhea)

Assessment of disease specific immune responses in enteric diseases using dried blood spot (DBS).

BackgroundBlood collection, transportation and storage remain a problem in countries where infrastructure, laboratory facilities and skilled manpower are scarce. This limits evaluation of immune responses in natural infections and vaccination in field studies. We developed methods to measure antigen specific antibody responses using dried blood spot (DBS) in cholera, ETEC and typhoid fever patients as well as recipients of oral cholera vaccine (OCV).Methodology/principle findingsWe processed heparinized blood for preparing DBS and plasma specimens from patients with, cholera, ETEC and typhoid as well as OCV recipients. We optimized the conventional vibriocidal method to measure vibriocidal antibody response in DBS eluates. We measured responses in DBS samples and plasma (range of titer of 5 to 10240). Vibriocidal titer showed strong agreement between DBS eluates and plasma in cholera patients (ICC = 0.9) and in OCV recipients (ICC = 0.8) using the Bland-Altman analysis and a positive correlation was seen (r = 0.7, p = 0.02 and r = 0.6, p = 0.006, respectively). We observed a strong agreement of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and cholera toxin B (CTB)-specific antibody responses between DBS eluates and plasma in cholera patients and OCV recipients. We also found agreement of heat labile toxin B (LTB) and membrane protein (MP)-specific antibody responses in DBS eluates and plasma specimen of ETEC and typhoid patients respectively.ConclusionOur results demonstrate that dried blood specimens can be used as an alternate method for preservation of samples to measure antibody responses in enteric diseases and vaccine trials and can be applied to assessment of responses in humanitarian crisis and other adverse field settings

In vivo analysis of toxic effect of hydrose used in food preparations in Bangladesh

Objective: To evaluate the toxic effect of hydrose used in the molasses preparation in Bangladesh. Methods: Molasses were collected from open markets in different parts of Bangladesh. The presence of hydrose in selected molasses was detected using commercial kit. To evaluate the toxic effect of hydrose, Swiss albino male mice were divided into four groups. Group I was used as control, while Groups II, III and IV received hydrose mixing food (5, 10 and 25 g/kg food), respectively, and these supplementations were continued to the end of the study (16 weeks). Blood was collected from thoracic arteries of the mice under ether anesthesia and then organs were taken. To determine the effect of hydrose on host, blood indices related to liver, heart and kidney dysfunctions were measured. Results: Creatinine and urea levels were significantly (P<0.05) increased in a dose dependent manner in hydrose treated mice, whereas calcium level was significantly decreased in hydrose exposed mice compared to control mice. Histological study of kidney showed the glomeruler inflammation, increased diameter of renal glomeruli and enlargement of proximal tubular lumen of kidneys of mice exposed to hydrose compared to that of control animals. Conclusions: The results of this study indicated that use of hydrose in molasses and other food preparations in Bangladesh may cause kidney impairment