Sero-Prevalence and Factors Associated with Toxoplasma gondii Infection among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care in Mwanza, Tanzania.

Serological screening of pregnant women for Toxoplasma gondii-specific antibodies is not practiced as an antenatal care in Tanzania; and there is a limited data about sero-prevalence of T. gondii infection in developing countries. We therefore conducted this study to determine the sero-prevalence and factors associated with T. gondii infection among pregnant women attending antenatal care clinics in Mwanza, Tanzania. Between 1st November 2012 and 31st May 2013 a total of 350 pregnant women attending antenatal care clinics in Mwanza were enrolled and screened for IgG and IgM antibodies against T. gondii using the ELISA technique. Of 350 pregnant women, 108 (30.9%) were sero-positive for T. gondii-specific antibodies. The risk of contracting T. gondii infection increases by 7% with each yearly increase in a woman's age (OR=1.07, 95% CI: 1.02 - 1.11, p=0.002). The sero-positivity rate of T. gondii-specific antibodies was higher among pregnant women from the urban than those from rural communities (41.5% versus 22.0%); [OR=2.2, 95% CI; 1.4 - 3.7, p=0.001]. Likewise employed/business women were more likely to get T. gondii infection than peasants (40.0% versus 25.9%) [OR=1.9, 95% CI: 1.2 - 3.0, p=0.006]. Sero-prevalence of T. gondii-specific antibodies is high among pregnant women in Mwanza with a significant proportion of women at risk of contracting primary T. gondii infections. Screening of T. gondii infections during antenatal care should be considered in Tanzania as the main strategy to minimize congenital toxoplasmosis

Low Sputum Smear Positive Tuberculosis among Pulmonary Tuberculosis Suspects in a Tertiary Hospital in Mwanza, Tanzania

Early diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) and prompt initiation of treatment are essential for an effective tuberculosis control programme. In many resource limited settings microscopic diagnosis is still the pivotal tool in the diagnosis of pulmonary TB. This study aimed at evaluating laboratory microscopic diagnosis of tuberculosis in a tertiary hospital in Mwanza, Tanzania. This retrospective hospital based study reviewed consecutively from TB registry and patients’ files a total of 5,922 TB suspects who submitted their sputum for examination between January 2007 and May 2010 at Bugando Medical Centre (BMC). Among TB suspects (mean age=36.1±13.6 years) female accounted for 54.1% of the patients. The prevalence of HIV among TB patients was 59.4%. The sputum smear positivity rate among the TB suspects was 6.1%; the rate was higher in HIV positive than in HIV negative patients (9.9 % versus 3.2%, P-value < 0.001). The overall positivity rate for the first smear was 94.2% with an incremental percentage yield of 5.2% and 0.6% for the second and third smears, respectively. The study found that 28.6% of patients who were positive in the first smear did not return for the second smear. The risk factors among smear positive TB patients were co-illness (32.5%), previous history of TB (7.5%) and history of positive TB contact (4.7%). These findings also show that as CD4+ T Cells count increases, the quantity AFB in sputum smear also increase although not statistically significant. The sputum smear positivity rate at Bugando Medical Centre is low and more than a quarter of initial TB suspects who were positive in the first smear were lost to follow up posing a threat of continuous transmission of tuberculosis to the community. The finding of more sputum smear positivity rate among HIV positive than HIV negative patients at BMC requires a prospective study to ascertain whether it is a reality or a coincidence.\u

\ud Case Report: Unsuspected Uterine Choriocarcinoma with Lung Metastasis\ud

Choriocarcinoma is a rare form of cancer which commonly occurs in women of reproductive age, rarely in post-menopausal women and in women under 20 years of age. Methods & Results: We report an unsuspected case of uterine choriocarcinoma with lung metastasis in a 27 year-old woman who presented to a medical ward with a history of prominent respiratory, but also genital and gastrointestinal symptoms. Conclusions: The presented case report emphasizes the need for sophisticated diagnostic technology to enable early diagnosis and correct treatment. Furthermore the case highlights the need for healthcare workers to consider rare causes of respiratory signs and symptoms

Silencing Mist1 gene expression is essential for recovery from acute pancreatitis

Acinar cells of the exocrine pancreas are tasked with synthesizing, packaging and secreting vast quantities of pro-digestive enzymes to maintain proper metabolic homeostasis for the organism. Because the synthesis of high levels of hydrolases is potentially dangerous, the pancreas is prone to acute pancreatitis (AP), a disease that targets acinar cells, leading to acinar-ductal metaplasia (ADM), inflammation and fibrosis-events that can transition into the earliest stages of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Despite a wealth of information concerning the broad phenotype associated with pancreatitis, little is understood regarding specific transcriptional regulatory networks that are susceptible to AP and the role these networks play in acinar cell and exocrine pancreas responses. In this study, we examined the importance of the acinar-specific maturation transcription factor MIST1 to AP damage and organ recovery. Analysis of wild-type and Mist1 conditional null mice revealed that Mist1 gene transcription and protein accumulation were dramatically reduced as acinar cells underwent ADM alterations during AP episodes. To test if loss of MIST1 function was primarily responsible for the damaged status of the organ, mice harboring a Cre-inducible Mist1 transgene (iMist1) were utilized to determine if sustained MIST1 activity could alleviate AP damage responses. Unexpectedly, constitutive iMist1 expression during AP led to a dramatic increase in organ damage followed by acinar cell death. We conclude that the transient silencing of Mist1 expression is critical for acinar cells to survive an AP episode, providing cells an opportunity to suppress their secretory function and regenerate damaged cells. The importance of MIST1 to these events suggests that modulating key pancreas transcription networks could ease clinical symptoms in patients diagnosed with pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. © 2015 Karki et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

High rate of drinking water contamination due to poor storage in squatter settlements in Mwanza, Tanzania

Background: Drinking water of acceptable quality is supposed to be free from faecal coliform and chemical substances that may be hazardous to human health. Water treatment and safe storage at the household level has been advocated as effective means of ensuring safe drinking water. This study was undertaken to determine the microbiological quality of the drinking water at household level in the squatter settlements in the city of Mwanza, Tanzania.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between June 2014 and September 2014.  A total of 15 randomly selected water sources (tap) and 207 households’ drinking water samples from these sources were studied to ascertain level of water contamination using Membrane Filtration Method. Pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect demographic and other data regarding water treatment and storage.  Data were entered, cleaned and analysed using STATA Version 11.Results:  All 15 samples from tap used as water sources were found to be free of indicator organism (Escherichia coli) while 109 (52.66%) of drinking water samples from 207 households were found to be contaminated with E. coli.  All contaminated drinking water samples were from containers with no cover and spigot. Conclusions: There is a significant level of deterioration of water quality from the source to the drinking cup. Efforts to ensure quality storage methods for drinking water should be addressed at household level

Illuminating the ‘Face’ of Justice: A Meta‐Analytic Examination of Leadership and Organizational Justice

A significant body of research has described effective leader behaviours and has connected these behaviours to positive employee outcomes. However, this research has yet to be systematically integrated with organizational justice research to describe how leader behaviours inform justice perceptions. Therefore, we conduct a meta‐analysis (k = 166, N = 46,034) to investigate how three types of leader behaviours (task, relational, and change) inform four dimensions of organizational justice (procedural, distributive, interpersonal, and informational) referenced to the leader and to the organization. Further, we examine the joint impact of leader behaviours and justice perceptions on social exchange quality (i.e., leader–member exchange), task performance, and job satisfaction. Our results suggest that leader behaviours differentially inform leader‐ and organization‐focused justice perceptions, and the joint effect of leader behaviours and justice perceptions offer more nuanced explanations for outcomes.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147024/1/joms12402_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147024/2/joms12402.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147024/3/joms12402-sup-0001-TableS1.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147024/4/joms12402-sup-0002-TableS2.pd

Draft Genome Sequence of a Multiresistant Bovine Isolate of Staphylococcus lentus from Tanzania.

We report here the draft genome sequence of a Staphylococcus lentus isolate, 050AP, collected in Tanzania from a swab of healthy bovine perineum. The draft genome sequence contained 2.72 Mbp and 2,750 coding sequences with a G+C content of 31.7%

Evaluation of the Bruker SMART X2S: crystallography for the nonspecialist?

An evaluation of the Bruker SMART X2S for the collection of crystallographic diffraction data, structure solution and refinement is carried out with a variety of materials with different electron densities, presenting some of the successes and challenges of automation in chemical crystallography

Antistaphylococcal activity of DNA-interactive pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) dimers and PBD-biaryl conjugates

Objectives: pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) dimers, tethered through inert propyldioxy or pentyldioxy linkers, possess potent bactericidal activity against a range of Gram-positive bacteria by virtue of their capacity to cross-link duplex DNA in sequence-selective fashion. Here we attempt to improve the antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity profile of PBD-containing conjugates by extension of dimer linkers and replacement of one PBD unit with phenyl-substituted or benzo-fused heterocycles that facilitate non-covalent interactions with duplex DNA.Methods: DNase I footprinting was used to identify high-affinity DNA binding sites. A staphylococcal gene microarray was used to assess epidemic methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus 16 phenotypes induced by PBD conjugates. Molecular dynamics simulations were employed to investigate the accommodation of compounds within the DNA helix.Results: increasing the length of the linker in PBD dimers led to a progressive reduction in antibacterial activity, but not in their cytotoxic capacity. Complex patterns of DNA binding were noted for extended PBD dimers. Modelling of DNA strand cross-linking by PBD dimers indicated distortion of the helix. A majority (26 of 43) of PBD-biaryl conjugates possessed potent antibacterial activity with little or no helical distortion and a more favourable cytotoxicity profile. Bactericidal activity of PBD-biaryl conjugates was determined by inability to excise covalently bound drug molecules from bacterial duplex DNA.Conclusions: PBD-biaryl conjugates have a superior antibacterial profile compared with PBD dimers such as ELB-21. We have identified six PBD-biaryl conjugates as potential drug development candidate