experience of oral acyclovir in treating children with varicella infection

To study the morbidity and complications of varicella infection in patients treated with acyclovir. It is a descriptive observational study conducted at Paediatric out patient department of Civil Hospital Karachi during September 1997 to March 1998. Alt children between the ages of 2-15 years presenting with clinical features of varicella but healthy otherwise and of average weight, and presenting within 72 hours of the onset of rash were treated with oral acyclovir in a dose of 80 mg/ kg/ day for five days. At the end of five days the patients were evaluated for the duration of illness, severity of rash and itch and development of complications. The patients were also assessed for the side effects of the drug. Cost of the treatment was also calculated. A total of 31 children, 15 mate and 16 females were studied. After the treatment the fever remained for 1- 8 days [mean 3.12 days]. Eighteen [58%] patients had a moderate rash. Six [19.3%] had a severe rash while in seven [22%] the rash was of mild nature. Twenty [64.5%] of the patients had a moderate itch while five patients each [16.1%] had mild and severe itch. New rash continued to appear for three to nine days [mean 3.3 days]. Complications were noted in three [6.9%] patients' only and included otitis media, pneumonia and secondary bacterial infection of vesicular lesions in one patient each. None of the patients developed any side effects to the drug. The average cost of treatment was Rs.3269/=. Use of oral acyclovir in varicella infection [chicken pox] seems to limit new rash formation and total duration of illness to an average of

association of Plasmodium vivax malaria with thrombocytopenia in febrile children

Plasmodium vivax infection has always been considered much less severe than Plasmodium falciparum and usually not associated with complications. Recently it was observed that many patients with malaria due to Plasmodium vivax also develop thrombocytopenia and other complications, once considered to be the exclusively due to Plasmodium falciparum. We carried out this study in order to find out the association of Plasmodium vivax with thrombocytopenia and to determine the presence of malaria in admitted cases of thrombocytopenia with febrile illness. This study was carried out at the pediatric ward of the Dow University of Health Sciences and Civil Hospital Karachi from Aug 2006 to Dec 2006. All patients in the age group of 1 month - 15 years and admitted in the pediatric ward with febrile illness were checked for thrombocytopenia. All study cases were also screened for the presence of malarial parasites in the thick and thin blood films and by immunochromatography [ICT]. Patients with malarial parasitemia and thrombocytopenia were included in the study. The data was then analyzed and conclusions drawn. 18/36 study cases [50%] were found to have malarial parasites in blood. 13/18 cases [72%] of malaria had thrombocytopenia and were infected with P.vivax while 2/18 cases [11%] were infected with Pl. falciparum. Six patients with malarial parasitemia showed normal platelet counts, 4 cases were due to Pl. falciparum. Platelet count was