Biomedical subjects

G Kilonzo

Publications and source records attributed to G Kilonzo.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Risk factors for epilepsy in a rural area in Tanzania. A community-based case-control study.

BACKGROUND AND METHODS: The high prevalence of epilepsy detected in rural Tanzania by Dr. Jilek-Aall since 1960, was verified by the World Health Organization (WHO) survey on neurological and seizure disorders. Neurologists and psychiatrists further interviewed both patients and controls using standard methods. The presence of possible risk factors was complemented by corroborative evidence through interviewing close relatives and scrutinizing medical records. Seizures were classified based on clinical symptoms and the use of EEG. RESULTS: A family history of epilepsy in first-degree relatives was found in 46.6% of patients, but in only 19.6% of controls. The odds ratio for family history with epilepsy was 3.52 (95% confidence interval, CI 2.4-5.74, p < 0.001). A past history of febrile convulsion was found in 44% of patients in comparison to 23% of the control group which was significant (odds ratio 2.4, 95% CI 1.5-3.8; p < 0.001). A history of intrapartum complications was found in 12.1% of patients and 1.8% of controls (odds ratio 7.3, 95% CI 2.5-25.2; p < 0.002). Head injury was not a significant risk factor for epilepsy in this rural community. CONCLUSION: The results indicated a strongly independent association between four factors and the risk of developing epilepsy. It would seem more likely that previous brain insults/diseases play a significant major role in the cause of epilepsy in the Mahenge area. However, a genetic predisposition to low threshold for convulsions cannot be excluded.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Is care and support associated with preventive behaviour among people with HIV?

Care and support should play a critical role in assisting people who are HIV-positive to understand the need for prevention and to enable them to protect others. Differences in sexual risk reduction among 154 newly diagnosed HIV-positive individuals from semi-urban Tanzania were examined using a randomized control design, which assigned a control group to regular health services and an experimental group to enhanced care and support. Data were collected at baseline, three months and six months on self-reported sexual risk behaviours, disclosure of serostatus, reproductive health and psychosocial support. Over the six-month period, significant risk reduction occurred among both groups, with most of the behaviour change occurring during the first three months, e.g. 86 respondents (56%) reported condom use at last intercourse at 3 months compared with 24(16%) at baseline (p = 0.05). Extra care and support did not lead to increased risk reduction among the experimental group. The study population as a whole significantly changed their behaviour, suggesting that in the short term, learning one is HIV-positive has an impact on risk reduction.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1986

Witchcraft and psychotherapy.

Belief in witchcraft, which serves a variety of social functions and personal defences, is bound to emerge in psychotherapy with individuals from a culture that holds such beliefs; endeavouring to understand it can open up new therapeutic possibilities. The nature of witchcraft, the profiles with which it intrudes into therapy, and the socio-psychological functions it fulfills are considered. Referring such patients to witchdoctors is morally unjustifiable, but the witch-doctor's folk-image provides a floating transference, around which the therapeutic relationship can be built. In dealing with witchcraft-ideation, understanding is based as much on cultural as on personal empathy, and to enhance its relevance, therapy may appropriate some of the functional dynamics of the witchcraft system into its own therapeutic manoeuvres.

Africa↗

PubMed1985

The cultural perspective of therapeutic relationship--a viewpoint from Africa.

Therapeutic relationship has been considered an important ingredient of all psychotherapies. In communities in which no familiar conventions of such a relationship are available, the therapeutic encounter poses very different problems from those in the West, where such conventions freely prevail. This study has been carried out by five therapists representing three widely disparate cultures, but all working together in Tanzania. It brings together their perceptions of these problems and the strategies they employed to resolve them while working with African patients. In their view, in spite of great disparity between the world view behind Western psychotherapy and that of African communities, it is not impossible to forge a therapeutic relationship if empathic understanding and cultural sensitivity are added to the attitude of acceptance. After all, the therapist must attract and keep the patient before he can expect anything from him. The authors describe how this can be done with African patients.

Cross-Cultural Comparison↗