Seroprevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen [HBS Ag] in patients with liver disease

One hundred and eight liver dysfunction patients, either admitted as indoor patients or attending the hospital as outdoor patients were included in the present study, to investigate the prevalence of Hepatitis B surface antigen [HBsAg]. Among the studied patients 22.22% were found positive for HBsAg. Of these positive patients, five had received blood transfusion and six gave a positive history of surgery. One hundred control population was also tested for HBsAg. Out of this, 5% were found positive for HBsAg; most of them were hospital employees. Of the 24 patients found positive for HBsAg, 44% could be attributed to known sources of transmission. The remaining HBsAg positive patients, most of them males, the infection of HBV could not be attributed to any of the conventionally reported sources, who belonged to very low income group. This fact brings to mind the possibility of infection through the percutaneous route. Further studies are necessary to investigate the role of this route in the causation of HBV infection in Pakistan

surgery of pollen allergies in six villages of Islamabad

This investigative research was carried out in 6 villages within 20 kilometres of central Islamabad to determine the incidence and prevalence of pollen allergy and factor associated with it. Using a cluster sampling method, a survey of 347 households was conducted. Show that 33% of the total study population was suffering from more than one type of pollen allergy. The highest number of casualties occurred during the months of February and March and the most affected persons were those aged 40 years or above followed by children in the age category of 7-19 years. An important finding was that the prevalence of allergies was higher amongst women as compared to men. The symptoms of allergies in more than 39% of the patients lasted for a minimum of 60 days or more. Also indicate that the recommended immunotherapy was neither a preventive measure nor a permanent cure against widespread pollen allergies

Sero-diagnosis of human brucellosis among TB suspected patients

In order to verify the frequency of human brucellosis among a TB suspected population, a study was conducted on the basis of sero-diagnosis of a total of 229 blood samples from TB suspected patients. Serological tests carried out were slide and semi-quantitative agglutination tests. Of the tested samples, 44 [19.21%] were SAT positive and of these, 28 [12.23%] were positive for the semiquantitative agglutination test. Twelve [42.86%] had a brucella titer of 1:80; 14 [50%] had a brucella titer of 1:160 and 2 [7.14%] had a titer of 1:320. The majority of patients positive for brucellosis, exhibiting sero-agglutination titers ranging between 1:40 and 1:320, were of rural background. However, 35.72% persons positive for brucella antibody with titer of 1:160 were from urban localities. Fever [84.48%], headache/dizziness [71.43%] and weakness/fatigue [46.43%] were the most common presenting symptoms among the brucellosis positive patients. The frequency of brucellosis among these TB suspected patients was found to be higher in women [73.91%], as compared to men [52.38%]

Incidence of Hepatitis-B in hospital admitted cases of Hepatitis

All patients with jaundice admitted in Medical;D; Unit Hayat Shaheed Teaching Hospital were investigated throughly. Two hundred and twenty were diagnosed as suffering from hepatitis. Hundred and eleven out of these two hundred and twenty were positive for Australia, Surface Antigen [50.0%] Mortality rate was 11.8% in all the cases