Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: An emerging childhood infection

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis [CL] has been an endemic parasitic infection in certain areas of Pakistan. New outbreaks have occurred in many areas not identified previously especially in the province of Sindh. The object of this study was to see the prevalence of CL as a childhood disease. It was a cross sectional study in which 400 cases coming to various skin disease clinics were included for confirmation of CL by microscopy, culture and PCR. Out of 400 cases, 185 cases of ages from 1-14 years were diagnosed clinically and confirmed by Lab. Tests for CL. Both dry and wet types of lesions were observed that indicated presence of more than one strain of the parasite. Cutaneous Leishmaniasis was found to be significantly prevalent in children. The strains were found to be L. tropica and L. major as was indicated by the nature of lesions and confirmed by PCR

Frequency, presentation and management of fibroid uterus

The study was carried-out in Unit - I, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Lady Willingdon Hospital, Lahore from January 2001 to December 2002. A total of 164 women with fibroid uterus were managed during this period. The objective of this study is to find out frequency and presentation of fibroids and to evaluate surgical treatment of women with fibroid uterus. Out of 164 cases, 47 had diagnostic D and C and were managed medically. Out of the rest 117 patients, 23 patients underwent myomectomy after diagnostic D and C. Ninety-three patients had abdominal hysterectomy while only one had vaginal hysterectomy. During operation, haemorrhage was the only complication which occurred in nine cases of myomectomy and intra-operative blood transfusion was done. Patients were followed- up for a period of six weeks to six months. There was no delayed complication or mortality in our study

Uterovaginal prolapse

This cross-sectional study included 160 patients with uterovaginal prolapse managed in Unit - I, Lady Willingdon Hospital, Lahore from January 2001 to December, 2002. Vaginal hysterectomy was done in 103 patients, Manchester repair operation in 18, anterior and posterior repair in 10 patients, posterior repair in 6 patients, ring pessary insertion in 3 patients and sling operation in 2 patients. One nulliparous girl who had Manchester repair and 1 elderly woman who had sling operation for post-hystrectomy vault prolapse had recurrence. These patients became asymptomatic after second operation. There was no mortality

Prevalence and pattern of HIV infection in Karachi

Two thousand seven hundred and seventy six subjects comprising 844 high risk and 1932 low risk group were screened for HIV antibodies by ELISA and western blot. Eight subjects from high risk group were HIV positive. They included three prisoners, two sexually promiscuous, two seafarers and one recipient of blood. The highest prevalence of the infection was found in sexually promiscuous group [5.40% +/- 7.40] followed by prisoners [1.64% +/- 1.87], multitransfused patients [1.0% +/- 1.96] and seafarers [0.66% +/- 0.93] No case of HIV infection was found in low risk population group, however, one pregnant woman had p24 and p55 antibodies on western blot