Introduction: Measles remains a worrying health problem in sub-Saharan African countries. There have been measles outbreaks in Cameroon with the most recent occurring between October 2022 and September 2023. The Centr...Introduction: Measles remains a worrying health problem in sub-Saharan African countries. There have been measles outbreaks in Cameroon with the most recent occurring between October 2022 and September 2023. The Centre region of Cameroon was the most affected in the country and being at the frontline of the fight against this illness, we conducted this study in order to determine the epidemiological and clinical characteristics as well as the outcome of children who contracted the measles and were hospitalized at the Yaoundé Gynaeco-Obstetric and Pediatric Hospital. Methodology: We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive and prospective study for one year from October 2022 to November 2023 corresponding to the duration of the outbreak. We included all children admitted in the pediatric unit for measles and its complications during this period. Results: In total, 60 children were enrolled. Their caregivers were mostly their mothers who had a mean age of 34.71 ± 9.55 years living in significant precarious conditions for the majority. The median age of children was 16 months (09 - 30 months). Twenty six percent of children (16) were less than 9 months. Girls were predominant (55%). Most children were not up to date with their routine EPI vaccination (80%) and most did not receive the measles and Rubella vaccine (76.67%). Clinical manifestations, included fever, conjunctivitis, and cough. Skin rash and catarrh (98.33% and 86.67% respectively) are the case definition signs of measles. The outcome was unfavorable for 4 children. One had a neurological disorder: coma and three presented with pneumonia and severe respiratory distress (6.67%). Conclusion: Measles is still being a reality and claiming lives in our context, emphasis should be made on immunization coverage and if possible, advocacies should be formulated to decrease the age of measles vaccine administration.展开更多
Introduction: Despite communication on Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), close to 5.9 million people didn’t know they were living with HIV. One of the modes of transmission of HIV is vertical transmission. It remai...Introduction: Despite communication on Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), close to 5.9 million people didn’t know they were living with HIV. One of the modes of transmission of HIV is vertical transmission. It remains the principal way of transmission of HIV for children below 15 years, with over 90% of them being infected. In Cameroon, the mother and child transmission of HIV is still a problem with 5.5% of infection of exposed infant at the early infant diagnosis in 2019. Awareness on prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) is an important component for the fight against HIV. We therefore aimed at gauging the level of knowledge of a group of adult clients on HIV and PMTCT. Methodology: We conducted a cross sectional and analytical study at the Yaoundé Gyneco-Obstetric and Pediatric hospital for a period of one month. Were included, adults who visited the hospital for a free screening campaign on HIV. Data were collected using a questionnaire on their characteristics and knowledge of HIV and PMTCT. Data were entered using CSPro and analysed using IBM SPSS. Results: There was a gap in knowledge on HIV, considering satisfactory knowledge from 25 points and above, it was noted that 34.6% of our respondents had a non-satisfactory knowledge. For PMTCT, knowledge was average with the majority scoring 10 points on 18. Considering satisfactory knowledge on PMTCT was from 10 and above, 35.9% of our respondents had a non-satisfactory knowledge. Female sex was associated with satisfactory knowledge for both HIV and PMTCT. Conclusion: Concerning PMTCT, the knowledge of the mode of transmission, Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for prevention to the babies or feedings recommendations on exposed HIV infants were poor. There is a gap in favor of women regarding knowledge between HIV and PMTCT. Therefore, men are highly encouraged to take part to health promotion activities on HIV and PMTCT.展开更多
文摘Introduction: Measles remains a worrying health problem in sub-Saharan African countries. There have been measles outbreaks in Cameroon with the most recent occurring between October 2022 and September 2023. The Centre region of Cameroon was the most affected in the country and being at the frontline of the fight against this illness, we conducted this study in order to determine the epidemiological and clinical characteristics as well as the outcome of children who contracted the measles and were hospitalized at the Yaoundé Gynaeco-Obstetric and Pediatric Hospital. Methodology: We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive and prospective study for one year from October 2022 to November 2023 corresponding to the duration of the outbreak. We included all children admitted in the pediatric unit for measles and its complications during this period. Results: In total, 60 children were enrolled. Their caregivers were mostly their mothers who had a mean age of 34.71 ± 9.55 years living in significant precarious conditions for the majority. The median age of children was 16 months (09 - 30 months). Twenty six percent of children (16) were less than 9 months. Girls were predominant (55%). Most children were not up to date with their routine EPI vaccination (80%) and most did not receive the measles and Rubella vaccine (76.67%). Clinical manifestations, included fever, conjunctivitis, and cough. Skin rash and catarrh (98.33% and 86.67% respectively) are the case definition signs of measles. The outcome was unfavorable for 4 children. One had a neurological disorder: coma and three presented with pneumonia and severe respiratory distress (6.67%). Conclusion: Measles is still being a reality and claiming lives in our context, emphasis should be made on immunization coverage and if possible, advocacies should be formulated to decrease the age of measles vaccine administration.
文摘Introduction: Despite communication on Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), close to 5.9 million people didn’t know they were living with HIV. One of the modes of transmission of HIV is vertical transmission. It remains the principal way of transmission of HIV for children below 15 years, with over 90% of them being infected. In Cameroon, the mother and child transmission of HIV is still a problem with 5.5% of infection of exposed infant at the early infant diagnosis in 2019. Awareness on prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) is an important component for the fight against HIV. We therefore aimed at gauging the level of knowledge of a group of adult clients on HIV and PMTCT. Methodology: We conducted a cross sectional and analytical study at the Yaoundé Gyneco-Obstetric and Pediatric hospital for a period of one month. Were included, adults who visited the hospital for a free screening campaign on HIV. Data were collected using a questionnaire on their characteristics and knowledge of HIV and PMTCT. Data were entered using CSPro and analysed using IBM SPSS. Results: There was a gap in knowledge on HIV, considering satisfactory knowledge from 25 points and above, it was noted that 34.6% of our respondents had a non-satisfactory knowledge. For PMTCT, knowledge was average with the majority scoring 10 points on 18. Considering satisfactory knowledge on PMTCT was from 10 and above, 35.9% of our respondents had a non-satisfactory knowledge. Female sex was associated with satisfactory knowledge for both HIV and PMTCT. Conclusion: Concerning PMTCT, the knowledge of the mode of transmission, Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for prevention to the babies or feedings recommendations on exposed HIV infants were poor. There is a gap in favor of women regarding knowledge between HIV and PMTCT. Therefore, men are highly encouraged to take part to health promotion activities on HIV and PMTCT.
