ABSTRACT
In India, the first sero-positive person was reported from Chennai in 1986 and the first case of AIDS from Mumbai 1987. Since then the epidemic is growing steadily and WHO/UNAIDS estimate that by the year 2000 AD India has around 3-5 million people suffering from HIV/AIDS and this is the largest burden of HIV in single country. Over 40% of all patients with HIV infection will develop malignant disease at sometime during their course of illness. AIDS and malignancy together constitute a deadly combination. The authors recommend that the care of patients having malignancy with AIDS should be mainly at home rather than in an oncology center. This will ensure the patient's and family's comfort as most of the specialized cancer centers in India are at a considerable distance away from patient's homes. Frequent visit to a cancer center will exhaust the patient and attendants emotionally, physically and financially. This is especially true because irrespective of the pains taken by the family and the specialists, a cure is an unlikely possibility. Only one specialist from oncology and one primary health physician, who are completely aware of the patient's physical, psychological, financial and social background, should be responsible for the care of a patient having malignancy with AIDS in India. The main advantages of the home care of such patients are: patient's and family's comfort; lesser mental, physical, social, emotional and financial agony; and minimum need for institutional care, which may be instituted as and when necessary.
Subject(s)
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/therapy , Combined Modality Therapy , Developing Countries , Home Care Services , Humans , India , Neoplasms/therapy , Patient Admission , Primary Health CareABSTRACT
To find out the clustering of HBV carriers within a family, 50 HBsAg carriers were studied. The distribution of HBsAg was found to be high (33%) among the offspring of HBsAg negative father and positive mother when compared to positive father and negative mother (16%) or where both the parents were HBsAg negative (31%0. The frequency of HBV DNA was also found to be high among the offspring of HBV DNA negative father and HBV DNA positive mother (25%). Male infection leading to a clustering of HBsAg carrier families.
ABSTRACT
Levels of lipid peroxides in rat caecum, blood, liver and kidney and the capacity of tissue homogenates to form lipid peroxides in vitro was enhanced after caecal amoebiasis in rats produced by Entamoeba histolytica (IB-1). The activity of hepatic drug-metabolizing enzymes in post-mitochondrial fraction and the cytochrome P 450 contents in microsomal fraction decreased significantly, while lysosomal enzymes such as acid phosphatase, acid ribonuclease and cathepsin Β showed an increase in the liver homogenates of infected animals. These changes were reversed following treatment with the antiamoebic drug, metronidazole.