Social and behavioral factors associated with Clonorchis infection in one commune located in the Red River Delta of Vietnam.

Social behavioral factors associated with Clonorchis infection are needed for control measures. The population in Nga Tan commune were randomly sampled and questioned to determine knowledge, perception, and health behavioral factors associated with Clonorchis infection among heads of households. The cellophane thick smear method was applied to examine their stool samples. Seven hundred and seventy-one cases were examined, the positive rates were 17.2%, 66.9%, 78.7%, 15.9%, and 0.14% for Clonorchis sinensis, Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, hookworm, and Dicrocoelium dendriticum respectively. There was no significant difference between the infection rate of clonorchiasis, education level, and family income groups (p > 0.05). But there was significance difference between the infection rate of clonorchiasis and people living in different family sizes (p < 0.01). Thirty-four clonorchiasis patients treated with praziquantel 25 mg/kg/day for three days showed a cure rate in 30 days of 97.1%.

Malaria control through impregnated bednets--a pilot project in selected villages in Lao PDR.

In 7 villages on the foothills of the Houayxai district of the Bokeo Province in Lao PDR between midyear 1995 to midyear 1997 an attempt was made to test the acceptability and use of DDT impregnated bed nets as well as environmental and behavioral risk factors. About 380 women between 15 to 45 years old and their children in the age range of 1 to 14 years had been studied. A pre-tested questionnaire had been applied and blood from women and children was taken from the finger prick and a conventional thick and thin blood smear was performed, fixed Giemsa stained and examined for malaria parasites. DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) impregnated mosquito nets were distributed in the intervention villages. The availability of mosquito nets increased statistically significant from approximately 50% to 70% for all family members in the intervention area between 1995 and 1997 and statistically significant decreased in the control area from 79% to 45.1%. There was a statistically significant decrease in malaria attacks as claimed by the females for the intervention area but not for the control villages. The proportion of positive blood smears did decrease overall for women and children in between 1995 to 1997. Occupation, location of the house and use of mosquito nets had been determined as the most important risk factors.

Evaluation of direct agglutination test (DAT) as an immunodiagnostic tool for diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis in Nepal.

Before field application of the direct agglutination test (DAT) for leishmaniasis, it was assessed as a diagnostic tool. Fifteen confirmed visceral leishmaniasis cases (bone marrow aspiration positive), 120 tuberculosis, 58 leprosy, 15 malaria, 26 intestinal parasitic infection cases, 24 endemic healthy controls from adjacent to the study area, and 18 controls from Kathmandu (who had never visited the VL endemic areas) were tested for anti-leishmanial antibody agglutination titers. Two of the tuberculosis cases were positive for anti-leishmanial agglutinating antibodies at 1:800. All the visceral leishmaniasis confirmed cases were reactive to anti-leishmanial antibody at > or = 1:3,200. Other specimens were negative for serology. The sensitivity of the direct agglutination test was 100% and the specificity was 99.2%. The direct agglutination test had positive and negative predictive values of 100% and 99.2% respectively. The direct agglutination test has been found to be simple, rapid, reliable, economic, safe and adaptable to micro-techniques using microtiter plates. It is specific and sensitive. The direct agglutination test is simple enough for it to be performed in a field laboratory.

Malaria-related social and behavioral risk factors in Thailand: a review.

A review of the social and behavioral risk factors that have been implicated in malaria infection in Thailand was done as a basis for designing a conceptual framework in formulating recommendations of strategies and research needs to ensure better implementation and/or maximization of the effectiveness of existing malaria control measures in the country. These factors can be broadly divided into three categories: (1) social and behavioral risk factors favoring increased occurrence and transmission, ie population movements, irregular use or non-use of mosquito nets, partial or non-conformance with residual DDT house spraying, etc, (2) behavioral risk factors predisposing to occurrence of severe and complicated malaria, not clearly known, probably delayed treatment, (3) behavioral risk factors related to occurrence of drug resistance, ie treatment-seeking patterns, practices of drug utilization and population movements. Recommendations on research needs as well as strategies for a more effective control program are given.

Health behavior, treatment-seeking patterns, and cost of treatment for patients visiting malaria clinics in western Thailand.

A clinic-based case-control study was conducted at two malaria clinics in western Thailand in order to investigate social and behavioral factors believed to be associated with malaria occurrence. The finding was that the malaria cases were predominantly male, under age 25 and single. The results showed a significant association for use of mosquito nets, conformance with DDT spraying and residing in forested areas two weeks before occurrence of illness with malaria. Analysis of symptoms revealed fever, headache and chills to be the major noticeable symptoms initiating treatment. Three basic treatment-seeking patterns were observed. The results of this study suggest that particular attention should be given to malaria health education for younger age groups and forest-related people. In addition, attention should also be given to ways of increasing awareness of symptoms, and motivation of people to use malaria clinics for malaria screening and treatment at onset of first symptoms in order to eliminate treatment-seeking at ineffective first sources. Malaria Voluntary Collaborators, Village Health Volunteers and Village Health Communicators have an important role in convincing people in malarious areas to use malaria clinics for malaria screening and treatment when the villagers develop malaria-like symptoms. This would reduce disease transmission and severity by reducing the delay for efficacious treatment and would also reduce the cost of malaria treatment.

Migration and disease problems: a study of pattern of migration in an endemic area of malaria in Thailand.

The preliminary results of a study of rural-rural migration in an endemic area of malaria is reported. The study on socio-economic status of migrant workers was made during the post planting season of sugarcane plantation in Tambon Nong Rhee Kanchanaburi Province. Among 9,311 population in four villages of this Tambon, 15.4% were migrants and 45.5% were from the northeast provinces of Thailand. Almost half of the migrant population came to the area for the first time and stayed for six months mostly during the sugarcane cutting season. No significant difference in experience with malaria (as recognized by the people not from blood examination) between the local population and the migrants was observed from the interview. However, the duration of migration seemed to relate with the risk of contracting malaria.