A looming crisis: health in the Central Asian Republics.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R Jolly.
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Breastfeeding can help prevent the 38,000 daily deaths of infants and young children through its nutritional, immunologic, and sanitary aspects. Nevertheless, it is on the decline in most countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have combined to issue guidelines on the role of maternity services in promoting breastfeeding, such as, a hospital breastfeeding policy with rooming-in, demand-feeding, and the elimination of bottles and breast milk substitutes. These practices have succeeded in programs around the world and have increased the breastfeeding rate at the same time that infection rates decreased.
Yellow-green autofluorescence was quantified in the fundi of sheep and dogs with ceroid-lipofuscinosis, using a modified photographic slit-lamp microscope with motorized scanning probe, a photomultiplier system and a digital radiometer. In age-matched controls, no fluorescence was detected. The technique should prove useful as a clinical aid in the early differential diagnosis of this disease and in the basic study of aging.
The following paper discusses the progress made in providing primary health care (PHC) to the developing world in the 10 years following the joint WHO/UNICEF International Conference on Primary Health Care held at Alma Ata, U.S.S.R., in 1978. UNICEF is now 12 years from the goal to provide Health for All by the Year 2000. In this context, the authors describe UNICEF's 'country programming approach' to PHC as part of the child survival and development revolution (CSDR), articulated by the agency in 1982. A polarization between the two concepts of 'selective' and 'comprehensive' PHC is examined in the light of quotations from the original conference document which set forth strategies and priorities. The authors, a consultant and a staff member of UNICEF, respond to criticism of the agency in this regard by drawing directly on UNICEF's own work in the field and its record of success, even at a time when developing countries are battling severe economic constraints and health budgets are being slashed--a contingency not foreseen at Alma Ata. WHO evaluations of both the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) and oral rehydration therapy (ORT) show that accelerated programs develop best when underpinned by a good health infrastructure. The challenge is to develop priority programs in such a way as to build on or strengthen this infrastructure. Flexibility is the key in adapting national priorities to local programs. The point is made that international agencies should be careful to limit themselves to advocacy and support.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Isolated outer segments from the photoreceptors of the eye were markedly reduced in young animals with ovine ceroid-lipofuscinosis. At 5 months of age, 68% of these structures were lost and by 18 months, no segments remained. Our results suggest that loss of these structures can be identified earlier by quantitative analysis, than by electroretinography.
Retinal degeneration is a major finding in the human and ovine ceroid lipofuscinosis. Sequential electroretinographic (ERG) studies in a young, asymptomatic, affected lamb are presented here, which demonstrate a progressive loss of the scotopic b-wave and unrecordable c-waves under halothane anesthesia. Even at this initial stage of disease, lesions were evident in the form of dystrophic retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) villi, and loss of photoreceptor cells and rod outer segments. Cone inner segments were enlarged and scanning electron microscopy emphasized these abnormalities. All cells in tapetal and nontapetal areas contained fluorescent inclusions with similar emission spectra (maximum = 539 nm). By transmission electron microscopy, storage bodies consisted of 'finger-print' profiles and were most prominent in bipolar cells. The pathological features of the retina correlate well with the observed ERG changes, reaffirming the sheep as a useful model to delineate early events in ceroid lipofuscinosis.
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Rats were exposed under aerobic or hypoxic conditions to 200-1200 rads of 60Co gamma-rays or extended-Bragg-peak helium ions on the eighth day of gestation. Uterine contents were examined on the twentieth day of gestation. At the 50 per cent embryonic survival level, helium ion r.b.e. was 1(.0) (aerobic) and 1(.2) (hypoxic). Maximum attainable gamma-ray and helium-ion o.e.r.s. were 2(.2) and 1(.7) respectively, indicating an oxygen-effect gain (o.e.g.) of 1(.2). At the 10 per cent survival level helium ion r.b.e. was 1(.1) (aerobic) and 1(.4) (hypoxic). Gamma-ray and helium-ion 0.e.r.s. were 2(.0) and 1(.5) respectively, indicating a helium ion o.e.g. of 1(.3). These data demonstrate that the small fraction of high-LET radiation present in this helium ion beam has a neglible effect on the aerobic r.b.e., but lowers the effective o.e.r. of the beam approximately 25 per cent relative to that of gamma-rays. Helium ions were significantly more effective than gamma-rays in killing embryos under hypoxic conditions, in producing congenital abnormalities under aerobic conditions, and in stunting foetal growth under both conditions.
Ovine ceroid-lipofuscinosis (OCL) is one animal model for the human condition, and because autofluorescent lipopigments are prominent in the brain and eye, it may also prove useful as a model for aging. For example, a progressive decline in electrical recording from brain and retina are observed in both aging and OCL. Samples of retinal and retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) tissues were obtained from a young control. 2 animals with OCL and a normal aged sheep. Specimens were cryo-fractured and examined by scanning electron microscopy/x-ray microanalysis. Measurements made of 6 individual cells in the ganglion layer of OCL specimens, the remainder of the retina, and RPE showed age-related changes in zinc, iron, and copper which were associated with lipopigment accumulation in the RPE. There was marked decrease in phosphate, sulfur, and manganese levels, as photoreceptor cells and their outer segments are lost in the disease process. This is the first report of metal analysis in the retina and RPE in a disease entity, and as a function of normal aging.
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