Knowledge Regarding Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV among a Group of Adults in a Low Income Country

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.

Active compounds of medicinal plants,mechanism for antioxidant and beneficial effects

An increased interest in the antioxidant effects of medicinal plants has developed in recent years.Identifying antioxidant compounds present in medicinal plants and elucidating the mechanism by which they prevent oxidation have been the focus of the research community.We performed a systematic and exhaustive review aimed at analyzing the available data regarding the beneficial effects of secondary metabolites in plants.The result of this review is presented as a description of free radicals,as well as cellular and physiological oxidative stress,is provided.The origin and source of antioxidant compounds,and the cellular and molecular mechanism by which they exert antioxidant effects,have been reported.The absorption,distribution and,elimination of antioxidants are mentioned.The beneficial effects of secondary metabolites of medicinal plants in various high incidence disease conditions were also reviewed.Finally,disease states that benefit from antioxidant compounds includes diabetes,cancer,cardiovascular diseases,and liver,brain and,intestinal diseases.

Caesarean Section in African Setting: Current Situation, Problematic and Qualitative Approaches at Laquintinie Hospital (Douala, Cameroon)

Background: Quality control of care aims to reduce or eliminate unnecessary care and to improve the quality of those who are useful both in their indication and in their implementation. Objective: We conducted this study to assess the rate of caesarean section, the rate of irrelevant indications, materno-foetal morbidity and mortality, biases in the management in order to suggest corrective approaches. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study conducted in the gynaeco-obstetrics department of the Laquintinie Hospital of Douala over a period of 4 months from January 1 to April 30, 2017. We included all pregnant women who had a caesarean section and who gave consent to our study as well as new-borns from these caesareans. We excluded caesarean deliveries from other health structures and referred to Laquintinie Hospital due to morbid operative follow-up. The variables collected were grouped under 3 main headings: socio-demographic data, clinical data and post-operative follow-up. Results: A total of 281 caesarean sections were performed out of a total of 967 deliveries;a caesarean section rate of 29.06% in 4 months. After data mining, 250 caesarean sections were included in the study because 31 cases of caesarean deliveries were unusable. Referred pregnancies accounted for 46.8% of the total population and the most common reason for referral was stationary labour (23% of cases). All caesareans were performed by the gynaeco-obstetricians. Women who had caesarean deliveries were informed by the operator of the surgical procedure in 28.4% of cases and 27.6% were notified of the indication for surgery. The operative kit was present in 98% of cases. The operating room was available in 93% of cases. Caesareans were performed mostly in an emergency context (91.2%) with a median turnaround time of 214 minutes (3 h 56 mins). Mechanical dystocia was the major indication in our series (21.2%) and 29 indications were irrelevant (11.6%). Intraoperative complications occurred in 3.2% of cases. Overall maternal mortality (per- and post-operative) was 0.8% (2 cases). We recorded 15 neonatal deaths out of which 8 were still births. Regarding the postoperative period, 78% of the operated patients did not have a good immediate postoperative monitoring. The post-operative protocol was not respected in 17% of cases. Postoperative complications occurred in 21.6% of patients with first cause being infections (10.8% with 5.6% being parietal suppurations). Conclusion: The frequency of Caesarean sections at Laquintinie Hospital is above the World Health Organization’s recommendations of 5% - 15%. There is a very big delay in the execution time of emergency caesareans, far above the international standards despite the quasi-availability of operating kits and the operating theatre. The state of the premises reveals a sub-workforce creating work overload and therefore a demotivation of the staff leading to insufficient communication between the operator and operated, a lack of postoperative follow-up and significant neonatal morbidity and mortality. Hence the need to initiate a staff satisfaction survey.

高血压的药物治疗——多数患者需要包含噻嗪类利尿剂的鸡尾酒疗法

在全世界范围内,高血压都是造成过早死亡、可预防的最重要病因之一,抗高血压药物带来的益处在临床试验提供的最大量证据中得到验证。现有多类药物可供临床治疗,而对某些相关问题目前尚存有较大争议,例如:治疗的收益是否完全取决于血压控制的质量?应用的药物类型是否为一个影响结局的有力决定因素?这是关键的问题,因为“老”