[Investigation of self-medication with antibiotics, Sudan study]

The present study was undertaken to estimate the prevalence of self-medication with antibiotmcs in four Sudanese cities, and to identify factors associated with this practice. A questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 1000 patients. The majority of the study population [83.8%] had used antibiotics without medical consultation. Moreover, previous symptoms were found to be the common causes of self-medication [52.7%], followed by economic factors [19.3%], while friend's advice represented 17.7%. Common cold appeared to be the most prevailed treated symptom without medical consultation [23.2%]. The study revealed that pharmacies were the main source of self-medicated antibiotics [83.9%]. The study indicated that only 54.4% of population had completed the antibiotics' regimens. Amoxicillin was the commonly used antibiotic by the majority of the respondents [53.9%], out of them 52.9% repeated the same antibiotics and 78.2% of population disagreed with self-medication practice. A set of recommendations was proposed to regulate self-mediations with antibiotics and to educate publics on the risks of irrational use of antibiotics

laryngeal presentation of Churg-Strauss syndrome in childhood

A 10- year-old female, known to have bronchial asthma, presented with an unusual laryngeal lesion, eventually diagnosed as Churg-Strauss syndrome [CSS]. She was referred to our hospital with history of recurrent stridor. On endoscopyhe, the larynx showed signs similar to recurrent respiratory papillomatosis [RRP]. CSS is a systemic disorder and is now defined as one of the ANCA [antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies]-associated vasculitides. CSS is a systemic disease that may involve unusual sites like the larynx. Such an unusual presenatation of CSS should be kept in mind, especially in patients with history of asthma

Invasive aspergillosis--a rabbit model

An invasive aspergillosis model in rabbits was attempted using 3 concentrations of A. fumigatus conidia. Conidia concentrations of 1 x 10(6), 1 x 10(7) and 1 x 10(8) were inoculated intravenously into rabbits. The severity of infection was directly proportional to the inoculum size of the conidia. Aspergillus fumigatus was isolated from livers, kidneys, spleens, hearts and lungs of infected rabbits at a rate of 82%, 75%, 57%, 54% and 32% respectively. Cultures of urine specimens taken by bladder tap were positive for A. fumigatus in 30% of the rabbits tested. Blood cultures using the Bactec Fungal System (Becton Dickinson Corp., USA) failed to isolate A. fumigatus in 20 rabbits with biopsy-proven invasive apergillosis. Active infection with high fungal tissue burden occurred between 2-4 days after infection in rabbits inoculated with 1 x 10(7) conidia.