To describe the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of infections in postpartum women admitted to the infectious diseases department at Fann Teaching Hospital. This retrospective descriptive study examined the records of women admitted for infectious diseases within 42 days after childbirth during the five-year period (2007-2011). Data were collected from medical files and analyzed with Sphinx plus2 V5 software. In all, 54 women were admitted for infections during the postpartum period. Their mean age was 27.4 ± 6.2 years. Fifty women (93%) had had vaginal deliveries. The average interval from delivery to admission was 15.4 ± 11.0 days. Tuberculosis (14 cases), vaginitis (13 cases), and severe malaria (7 cases) were the most frequent infectious diseases. The average duration of hospitalization was 12.1 ± 9.0 days. The mortality rate was 30%, with the main causes of death tuberculosis (25 %) and severe pneumonia of unknown causes (25 %). Tropical diseases remain frequent during the postpartum period, with a high lethality rate, as this study shows. Early diagnosis during pregnancy and better follow-up after delivery should be the best ways of reducing morbidity and mortality from these infections.
Throughout Morocco, cade oil is used in folk medicine for many purposes, in particular for atopic dermatosis. It is also used as a wormer. Cade oil poisoning of newborns and infants thus often has an iatrogenic origin, resulting especially from the ingestion of a significant amount or from a prolonged and extensive cutaneous application. Thus, this oil, used for therapeutic purposes, is responsible for a non-negligible number of cases of poisoning, some fatal. We report a case of poisoning after cutaneous application of cade oil in a 2-month-old infant. The outcome was fatal. This report calls attention to the real possibility of this event and emphasizes the interest of preventing it by promoting information to families in Morocco.
Leprosy is endemic in Haiti and remains a disease misunderstood by the population. In 2018, the national program to fight tuberculosis and leprosy (PNLTL) produced its first strategic plan against leprosy to implement the international strategy of the World Health Organization (WHO). The objective of this study was to describe the epidemiological situation of leprosy in Haiti, to assess its prevalence and morbidity, and to guide the strategies of the national plan. A retrospective study of all cases of leprosy diagnosed in the three centers providing care for this disease in Haiti reviewed the new cases at these centers from January 2013 through December 2017. In all, 232 new patients were recorded, or 49 new cases a year. Multibacillary leprosy was predominant: 86%, compared with the international mean of 60 %. Children accounted for 14 % of the new cases (7.5 % internationally), a finding that is evidence of active community transmission. Of the new cases in 2017, 8 %, including one child, had grade 2 impairments. Nearly all the leprosy cases - 94 % (218/232) - came from the two districts with treatment centers (West and Artibonite). Efforts must continue to implement the international strategy to fight leprosy to ensure a reduction by 2020 in the rate of grade 2 impairments among new cases and the number of new cases among children.
A 40-year-old soldier in Guyana consulted at the end of December for skin lesions that had been developing for several weeks after he was lost overnight in the equatorial forest, near the village of Saul. He was bitten by numerous mosquitoes during the night and as he crossed marshy areas. When he arrived at the clinic he had 23 leishmaniasis sites visible.