Efficacy of Fluorescence Microscopy in the Diagnosis of Tuberculosis in Guyana.

Background: Tuberculosis is one of the potentially serious human diseases and is still one of the major causes of mortality. It ranks as the second most leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, after the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of Fluorescence microscopy (FM) technique to determine sensitivity in detecting TB between HIV positive and HIV negative patients in a poor resource country. Methods: The study was a cross sectional and blind assessment on 50 suspected cases of TB among HIV positive and HIV negative patients using FM method against Zeihl Neelsen (ZN) staining method. Culture results were considered as gold standard. Results: Of the total 50 specimens examined by ZN, FM and culture method 32%, 40% and 38% were found positive by ZN, FM and culture respectively. FM was sensitive to ZN on several aspects. The difference in their case detection rates were statistically significant (2 = 35.3, p<0.001). In detecting overall patients for TB, FM method showed sensitivity of 90.0% (95% CI 68.3-98.5) over ZN method 75.0% (95% CI 50.9-91.3) with a kappa value of 0.83 (p≤0.05). FM method showed excellent sensitivity, sensitivity, PPV and NPV all with 100% (95% CI 48.0-100) among HIV-TB patients and an excellent kappa value of 1 (p≤0.05) Conclusion: This study presented greater sensitivity of FM method over conventional ZN staining method in detecting TB among HIV positive patients. Fluorescence microscopy can be widely used even in peripheral laboratories where culture facilities are not available.

Antibacterial and Physico-chemical Properties of Local Honey in Guyana.

Aim: The present study evaluates the antimicrobial activity of different samples of honey produced in Guyana and a comparison of their effectiveness with conventional antibiotics. Methods: A disk diffusion method was used to assess the activity of honey against microbial pathogens. The honeys were tested at different concentrations ranging from 100%, 50%, 25% and 1%. Results: The study showed that honey H2 was most effective on Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, while honey H3 was most effective on Staphylococcus aureus. Effective concentration for H1, H2 and H3 were 1%, 25% and 25% & 50% respectively. Conclusions: The study showed that honey has antibacterial activity (bacteriostatic and bactericidal effect), similar to antibiotics, against test organisms and provides alternative therapy against certain bacteria.

Epidemiology and control of Schistosomiasis and other intestinal parasitic infections among school children in three rural villages of south Saint Lucia.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the epidemiology of parasitic infections and the efficacy of treatment among school children in rural villages of south Saint Lucia. Method: A total of 554 school children participated in this study. Parasitic infections were confirmed by using Kato-Katz method. Results & conclusion: Overall, 61.6% of the school children were infected by any parasitic infection. The helminths identified were Ascaris lumbricoides (15.7%), Hookworm (11.9%), Strongyloides (9.7%), Trichuris trichiura (4.7%), Schistosoma mansoni (0.6%), Taenia solium (0.8%) and Enterobius vermicularis (2.1%), Entamoeba coli (9.7%), Iodameba butschlii (5%), Entamoeba histolytica (1.1%), Giardia lamblia (1.8%) and Endolimax nana (2.1%). The control intervention included treatment with albendazole 400 mg and praziquantel 40 mg/kg as well as awareness campaigns. Post-interventional assessment showed the total prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection reduced from 61.6 to 3.6% with a cure rate of 94.2%, following the control methods.