Biomedical subjects

Lulu Muhe

Publications and source records attributed to Lulu Muhe.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Child health in complex emergencies.

Coordinated and effective interventions are critical for relief efforts to be successful in addressing the health needs of children in situations of armed conflict, population displacement, and/or food insecurity. We reviewed published literature and surveyed international relief organizations engaged in child health activities in complex emergencies. Our aim was to identify research needs and improve guidelines for the care of children. Much of the literature details the burden of disease and the causes of morbidity and mortality; few interventional studies have been published. Surveys of international relief organizations showed that most use World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and ministry of health guidelines designed for use in stable situations. Organizations were least likely to have formal guidelines on the management of asphyxia, prematurity, and infection in neonates; diagnosis and management of children with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection; active case-finding and treatment of tuberculosis; paediatric trauma; and the diagnosis and management of mental-health problems in children. Guidelines often are not adapted to the different types of health-care workers who provide care in complex emergencies. Evidence-based, locally adapted guidelines for the care of children in complex emergencies should be adopted by ministries of health, supported by WHO and UNICEF, and disseminated to international relief organizations to ensure appropriate, effective, and uniform care.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Refining a probabilistic model for interpreting verbal autopsy data.

OBJECTIVE: To build on the previously reported development of a Bayesian probabilistic model for interpreting verbal autopsy (VA) data, attempting to improve the model's performance in determining cause of death and to reassess it. DESIGN: An expert group of clinicians, coming from a wide range geographically and in terms of specialization, was convened. Over a four-day period the content of the previous probabilistic model was reviewed in detail and adjusted as necessary to reflect the group consensus. The revised model was tested with the same 189 VA cases from Vietnam, assessed by two local clinicians, that were used to test the preliminary model. RESULTS: The revised model contained a total of 104 indicators that could be derived from VA data and 34 possible causes of death. When applied to the 189 Vietnamese cases, 142 (75.1%) achieved concordance between the model's output and the previous clinical consensus. The remaining 47 cases (24.9%) were presented to a further independent clinician for reassessment. As a result, consensus between clinical reassessment and the model's output was achieved in 28 cases (14.8%); clinical reassessment and the original clinical opinion agreed in 8 cases (4.2%), and in the remaining 11 cases (5.8%) clinical reassessment, the model, and the original clinical opinion all differed. Thus overall the model was considered to have performed well in 170 cases (89.9%). CONCLUSIONS: This approach to interpreting VA data continues to show promise. The next steps will be to evaluate it against other sources of VA data. The expert group approach to determining the required probability base seems to have been a productive one in improving the performance of the model.

Autopsy↗

PubMed2004

The use of CRP for diagnosing infections in young infants < 3 months of age in developing countries.

The diagnosis of severe bacterial infection in young infants in developing countries is difficult because of the lack of sensitivity and specificity of the presenting symptoms and signs. Whether C-reactive protein (CRP) might help with the early detection of neonatal sepsis was investigated in a prospective study in The Gambia, Ethiopia and The Philippines. Infants < 3 months of age with symptoms or signs of possible sepsis were evaluated; CRP was measured and assessed for its ability to predict proven invasive bacterial infection. Of 966 children < 3 months of age, 54 had a positive blood culture, 13 a positive CSF culture, 15 a positive blood and CSF culture and 884 had negative cultures. Median (interquartile range) CRP values were 42 (9-173), 14 (6-36), 209 (135-286) and 8 (3-27) mg/L in the four groups, respectively. Taking a CRP cut-off of 10 mg/L, the sensitivity and specificity of an elevated CRP to predict a positive blood or CSF culture were 77% and 55%, respectively, and 55% and 82%, respectively, for a cut-off of 40 mg/L. CRP lacks the sensitivity and specificity to be used alone as a predictor of serious infections in young infants.

Bacteremia↗

PubMed2003

Predictors of neonatal sepsis in developing countries.

BACKGROUND: Neonatal infections are a major cause of death worldwide. Simple procedures for identifying infants with infection that need referral for treatment are therefore of major public health importance. METHODS: We investigated 3303 infants <2 months of age presenting with illness to health facilities in Ethiopia, The Gambia, Papua New Guinea and The Philippines, using a standardized approach. Historical factors and clinical signs predicting sepsis, meningitis, hypoxemia, deaths and an ordinal scale indicating severe disease were investigated by logistic regression, and the performance of simple combination rules was explored. RESULTS: In multivariable analysis, reduced feeding ability, no spontaneous movement, temperature >38 degrees C, being drowsy/unconscious, a history of a feeding problem, history of change in activity, being agitated, the presence of lower chest wall indrawing, respiratory rate >60 breaths/min, grunting, cyanosis, a history of convulsions, a bulging fontanel and slow digital capillary refill were independent predictors of severe disease. The presence of any 1 of these 14 signs had a sensitivity for severe disease (defined as sepsis, meningitis, hypoxemia, or radiologically proven pneumonia) of 87% and a specificity of 54%. More stringent combinations, such as demanding 2 signs from the list, resulted in a considerable loss of sensitivity. By contrast only slight loss of sensitivity and considerable gain of specificity resulted from reducing the list to 9 signs. Requiring the presence of fever and any other sign produced a diagnostic rule with extremely low sensitivity (25%). CONCLUSIONS: Physical signs can be used to identify young infants at risk of severe disease, however with limited specificity, resulting in large numbers of unnecessary referrals. Further studies are required to validate and refine the prediction of severe disease, especially in the first week of life, but there appear to be limits on the accuracy of prediction that is achievable.

Bacterial Infections↗

PubMed2002

Impact of human immunodeficiency virus 1 infection on clinical presentation, treatment outcome and survival in a cohort of Ethiopian children with tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: Childhood tuberculosis (TB) is difficult to diagnose reliably because signs and symptoms are nonspecific and sputum for direct microscopy is difficult to obtain, especially in very young children. This diagnostic dilemma is thought to have increased with the HIV pandemic. Few studies on treatment outcome of dually infected children in high endemic countries have been reported. This study examines the impact of HIV infection on clinical presentation, diagnostic criteria and treatment outcome of TB in Ethiopian children. METHODS: A prospective cohort study of children with TB diagnosed in Addis Ababa from December 1995 to January 1997 in which HIV-positive children were compared with HIV-negative children with regard to medical history, signs and symptoms, nutritional status, chest radiography, tuberculin skin test, response to TB treatment and final outcome. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was cultured in children with pulmonary manifestations. RESULTS: HIV-positive children were younger, were underweight and had a 6-fold higher mortality than HIV-negative children. The tuberculin skin test was less sensitive and chest radiography was less specific in HIV-infected patients. Adherence to treatment was high (96%), and the cure rate was 58% for HIV-positive and 89% for HIV-negative TB patients. CONCLUSION: HIV-positive children are at risk of diagnostic error as well as delayed diagnosis of TB. TB manifestations are more severe and progression to death is more rapid than in HIV-negative children. Weight for age may be used to identify children at high risk of a fatal outcome.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗