Tanzania health research bulletin最新文献

Muhanse M4 is a traditional herbal preparation that has been in use in Tanzania for the past 17 years to improve the quality of life among people living with HIV/AIDS. This study was carried out to determine the safety of the extract Muhanse M4 in animal models. The qualitative test to identify alkaloids and saponins compounds was carried out. The toxicity tests in Swiss albino mice and rats were done according to WHO guidelines of 1993. Muhanse M4 was dissolved homogeneously in distilled water and was administered both intraperitonially and orally for 14 days for sub-acute test and 24 hours for acute test. Qualitatively, the extract was found to contain no alkaloids or saponins. In rats intraperitoneal doses that caused 100% lethality were 758.55 mg/kg and 553.7415mg/kg when administered singly and repeated, respectively. Single oral dose up to 3034.200mg/kg did not cause any death in the tested mice or rats. NOEL during intraperitoneal repeated doses for liver in rats was 424.788mg/kg, and NOAEL was 455.130mg/kg. In rats LD10%, LD50% and LD100% were 485.472mg/kg, 526.4337mg/kg and 553.7415mg/kg, respectively. In conclusion, Muhanse M4 extract is considered to be safe in laboratory animals.

Mosquito species were sampled to determine the mosquito composition and abundance in rice field and plantation communities in Ogun State Nigeria. Mosquitoes were caught once weekly from four selected houses in each of the two communities by means of CDC light traps. A total of 47,501 mosquitoes representing fifteen species were caught in the two communities of which the rice field community accounted for 63.8% of the total catch. Mansonia africana constituted the most important biting mosquito in the two communities representing 62.1% and 39.1% in rice field and plantation communities, respectively. Other species in decreasing order of abundance were M. uniformis, Anopheles gambiae, Coquilletidia fuscopennata, An. moucheti, An. funestus, An. nili, Culex quinquefasciatus, Eretmapodites chrysogaster, Coq. metallica, Cx. annulioris, An. rhodesiensis, Aedes aegypti, An. squamosus and An. maculipennis. Seven mosquito species were caught throughout the year but mostly in the months of May to October. Abundance varied significantly between the study sites and between the months (F,1.11 =241.9 P<0.05) Most of the mosquitoes collected were unfed and nulliparous (87.1%). In spite of the high proportion of M. africana, its parous rate was low 0.53 and 0.59 in rice fileld and plantation, respectively. The highest parity was seen in Ae. aegypti (0.81-0.86) and An. gambiae, (0.69-0.68).

DNA-based vaccination has emerged as a promising method of immunisation since the first demonstration of this technology. Improving the antibody responses is desirable for the protective efficacy and hence broad application of these vaccines. We examined the immunogenicity of a Plasmodium-based DNA vaccine that was targeted to antigen presenting cells by fusion to CTLA4. Fusion proteins comprising the extra-cellular domain of CTLA4, the hinge, CH2 and CH3 domains of human IgG1 and MSP-1 gene fragments were expressed in COS-7 cells. Three of the secreted proteins containing the mouse homologue of CTLA4 were shown to bind differently to the human B7-1 molecule expressed on THP-1 cells. Competition binding assays for two fusion proteins showed that binding was specific. When C57BL/6 mice were immunized with plasmids encoding the fusion proteins, antibodies against two denatured and one non-denatured MSP-1 gene fragments were successfully induced. The usefulness of this strategy in future studies of immunisaton against human malaria is discussed.

Traditional medicine and medicinal plants, in general, continue to be a powerful source of new drugs, now contributing about 90% of the newly discovered pharmaceuticals. Traditional medicine continues to provide health coverage for over 80% of the world population, especially in the developing world. The past and the present are all full of living examples of discoveries of drugs, ranging from anticancer, antiasthma, antidiabetic, antihypertensives and many others which owe their origin to traditional medicine. The current era of HIV/AIDS is not short of contributions from traditional medicine. The recent discovery of the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), calanolide A, is a new addition from traditional medicine. Many more such discoveries are yet to come. While this potential is much acknowledged, little has been done in African countries, to utilize the plants that are already known and proven to be safe for use by patients. A number of plants could be widely cultivated for local industrial production of medicines and herbal nutritional supplements. There is need to ensure that what is known is made use of, for financial gain, and for improvement of the health of our people. We need to establish the necessary expertise for development of traditional medicines and deliberate efforts should be made to encourage local industrial production of traditional/herbal medicines so that cultivation may become possible and hence contribute to poverty reduction.

Outpatient attendance and inpatient admission records were examined to assess malaria situation in ten hospitals in Mbeya and Iringa Regions in southern highlands of Tanzania for a period of fifteen years from 1986-2000. Generally, records were deficient, some hospitals with entire annual records missing for one or several years. However, malaria maintained a high profile as the leading cause of admissions and deaths among hospital attendees. Of the ten hospitals, seven recorded malaria as the leading cause of admissions for at least ten years; in three of these, it was also the top ranking cause of child death. Although the respective magnitude of malaria morbidity and mortality burdens was not directly correlated with altitude (P>0.5), three hospitals (Uwemba, Bulongwa and Ikonda) at above 2,000m, had relatively lower malaria morbidity and mortality burden compared to three worst affected facilities (Ilembula, Chimala and Mbozi) in the lower range of altitude, located in the flat plains. In conclusion, malaria is the major public health problem in the highlands districts of Mbeya and Iringa Regions in Tanzania that need the attention of health authorities and immediate intervention. However, more research is required to establish the true picture of the problem among the communities.

Information Technologies (IT) have been described as offering tremendous opportunity to improve health services as well as in meeting broader developmental goals which have an impact on health. Through the use of IT, healthcare sectors can potentially plan, monitor and evaluate health services as well as communicate more effectively within and across organizational hierarchies. However, a number of studies suggest several hindrances where the use of IT to bring critical change in the health sector of Tanzania has been problematic. Despite the lack of appropriate use of the existing IT resources in the health sector, donors and government have continued helping the health sector to acquire up-to-date IT resources while however placing little emphasis on long term IT training, data management and effective utilization of information resulting into wasted of such resources hence little improvement in health services delivery. This study is based on the Health Information System Programme (HISP), an action research project aimed at improving health information system in developing countries with the use of IT and information for local action. Under the project, the district health information software which is customizable, open source and freely distributed has been implemented in five pilot districts in Tanzania. The lessons learned from HISP project and other levels of the health sector in general indicate the lack of skills for data interpretation and utilisation, policy guidelines on information and human capacity building as well as a lack of flexible system.