Breast feeding, complementary feeding, and weaning practices, among children up to 2 years old in Gaza strip

The experience of die authors working with mothers in Gaza community in the of child and infant nutrition and their observation of incorrect weaning behavior, necessitated assessment of weaning practices for future intervention. The objectives of this study is to describe infant feeding attitudes and practices during breastfeeding [BF], complementary feeding [CF] and weaning [WP] for a sample of nursing mothers in the Gaza strip [GS] during the year 2009. The study is of cross-sectional design. The study sample consisted of 269 mothers of infants aged less than two years old Data were collected through face to face interviews of the mothers. The questionnaire contained questions related to infant feeding and weaning attitudes and practices of mothers towards their infants. Chi-square test was used to analyze data and P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Ethical approval was obtained verbally from each participant. In the present study 518% of infants were boys and 44.2% girls [Minimum age 1 month and maximum age 24 month]. The study revealed that 48.8% of the mothers weaned their children either suddenly or gradually. Complementary feeding was added between 3-5 months to 54.9% of the children that started to receive complementary feeding [post breast feeding]. The key limitation of this study was that the research team collected limited samples from all the five regions of Gaza Strip due to limited human and non-human resources. Satiety from complementary feeding was the prime cause for weaning followed by pregnancy of the nursing mother and then by breast refusal by the baby. The study showed lack of adequate knowledge by nursing mothers towards the procedure, practice and time of weaning and the importance of breast feeding. We recommend use of health education to assess and support the proper feeding practices amongst nursing mothers

Anaemia among school children aged 6-11 years old in Gaza strip, Palestine

The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of anaemia among children aged 6-11 old years due to causes other than parasitic infections. The present study was a cross-sectional study that included 1446 school children of both sexes, distributed in three localities [Khanyounis, Gaza and Beit-lahia] of Gaza strip. The cut-off point for anaemia was determined according to the mean of haemoglobin for all studied school age children, which was [12 g/dl] in accordance to WHO criteria. The observed mean level of Hb was 12 g/dl; standard deviation was 0.915 while the normal value is ranged between 8.9-15.2. Anaemia was found slightly higher in girls [36.3%] than boys [34%]. The results showed that anaemia constitute a health problem in Gaza with a prevalence of 35.3%. No variation in the prevalence of anaemia among the three studies areas. It is concluded that anaemia still constitutes a health problem among schoolchildren with a present prevalence among school-age children of 35.3%. It is expected that the prevalence of anaemia may be higher than that reported by this study due to Israeli siege to Gaza Strip

Prevalence of malnutrition and intestinal parasites among preschool children in the Gaza strip

Helminthiasis is one of the public health problems worldwide. This is especially true in Gaza Strip. This study demonstrated the parasites prevalent among mal-nutritional preschool-children according to the anthropometric cutoff points [WHO, 2007] and their family socio-demographic variability

Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii, Cytomegalo virus, rubella virus and chlamydia trachomatis among infertile women attending in vitro fertilization center, Gaza strip, Patestine

In the present study, the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii, rubella, cytomegalovirus [CMV] and Chiamydia trachomatis in Palestinian women was determined through antenatal screening. The study included 1954 Palestinian women records which were reviewed and analyzed statistically from 2000-2005. Those women attended In vitro fertilization center in Gaza complaining from infertility and abortion. Anti-Toxoplasma, anti-rubella, anti-CMV and anti-Chiamydia IgM antibodies were assayed using an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]. Positive results were found in 7.9%, 6%, 7% and 12.8% for T. gondii, CMV, Rubella and C. trachomatis antibodies. A high significant infection rate was observed in year 2003 [P = 0.001] for T. gondii. A clear variation with statistical significance was observed in the seroprevalence for all the studied pathogens regarding year of collection and age of women. The study indicated that T. gondii, rubella, CMV and C. trachomatis are still constitute a public health problem among pregnant women and considered one of the abortion factors

Entamoeba histoloytica or entamoeba dispar among children in Gaza, Gaza strip?

Most physicians in Gaza prescribe medicaments for patient's suffering from Entamoeba histolytica/dispar without parasitologic diagnosis. Additionally, stool analysis performed by the routine methods usually reports the species as E. histolytica without confirmation. In this study, 92 stool specimens were collected and analyzed by wet mount, iron haematoxylin staining, antigen detection of E. histolytica and polymerase chain reaction [PCR]. The total number of E. histolytica identified by PCR was 64 that of E. dispar was 21. Mixed infection with both E. histolytica and E. dispar was evident in 7 specimens. In the light of these results, approximately 30% of suspected clinical amoebiasis cases were negative for E. histolytica. It is recommended to use PCR for diagnosis of stool specimens from patients with E. histolytica/dispar and that treatment should be prescribed for only patients positive for E. histolytica