Going beyond the curriculum to promote medical education and practice in Saudi Arabia

The foundation of health starts as early as undergraduate medical education. Medical education in the Kingdom has always been successful in promoting the medical profession and population health. The current issue in the Kingdom is quality assurance in all organizations including the health field. Thus emerges the value of evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of the current system in meeting health needs and expectations. The aim of this paper was to analyze the current situation in order to design a frame for the direction of promotion of medical education and practice that best meets health needs and expectations. In fact, medical practice is a multidisciplinary process that is showing continuously changing theories. It has a broad scope of serving the whole community and improving the quality of life of all population categories. The huge quantity of information, needed to be retained by medical professionals, necessitates the move away from traditional methods of education to more practical and comprehensive programs of study. Most of the recent reform in medical education, in the Kingdom, has focused on curriculum and disregarded the education process. The requisite for the education process is a complete model of community-based health care, education and research. This study proposes a design aiming to enhance medical education and promote the medical profession, through developing the quality of medical professionals, that will foster growth of their activity and productivity, moving them into the community where clinical practice and experience are more relevant to the true health situation

Assessment of the interaction between chemical and biological control of biomphalaria alexandrina: the intermediate host of schistosomiasis mansoni

The acute molluscicidal activity of bayluscide is 80-100 times more than that of lannate, against both the target snail, B. alexandrina, and the biocontrol snail, L. carinatus, which showed about twice sensitivity to the tested compounds. Prolonged exposure for 7 weeks to sublethal concentration of lannate or bayluscide [1/10 LC50] in the presence of the biocontrol agent changed water pH, although, the changes were still in the survival range of the target snail. However, pesticide treatments and biocontrol agent had an adding action on increasing the death rate of the target snail which was more susceptible to lannate than to bayluscide. The tested concentration of Lannate associated with the biocontrol agent, positively influenced the egg laying capacity of the target snail, while Bayluscide treatment decreased this capacity. Nevertheless, conditioned water with L. carinatus snails for 6 weeks decreased the egg laying capacity of B. alexandrina snails, although the capacity was significantly increased when the conditioning was combined with Lannate residue as well. Hatchability was significantly declined when the eggs were laid in treated-conditioned water and left to hatch either in the same kind of water or in dechlorinated tap water

vaccination trial against vampirolepis Nana

In order to assess the protective antigen in the soluble material extracted from the whole adult mature worms of Vampirolepis nana, forty mice were used in this study. They were divided into three groups. Group I [15 mice] vaccinated with single oral dose antigen of 200 micro g protein/15 grams body weight. Group II [15 mice] vaccinated with double dose each 100 micro g protein/15 grams body weight. The interval between the primary and secondary administration of antigen was 10 days. Group III represents the comparative control group. All mice of the three groups were inoculated orally with 1000 V. nana eggs/mouse suspended in 0.1 ml normal saline. Group I was inoculated by the infective dose 10 days post vaccination. Group II was inoculated 10 days from the second dose of vaccination. The obtained results revealed the presence of protective antigen in the extracted material and the higher dose was more immunogenic. It manifested itself in the form of significantly decreased number of adult and mature worms and significantly elevated eosinophilic count

seroepidemiological study of visceral leishmaniasis in two different districts in Alexandria, Egypt

Two serological tests, IFAT and IHAT were performed on primary school children of two different areas in Alexandria. King Mariute area which is rich in vegetation, contains collection of bushes, stones and a number of deserted houses. Abbis II village is a rural area with a vast majority of green land, houses are constructed of bricks and next to each other. In the first area there were 5 [6.85%] seropositive children out of 73, while all the children from the second area were negative. The positivity rate was higher in the age group 9-10 years. The IFA test was more sensitive than IHAT