[Contact dermatitis in CHU of Mahdia]

Purpose of the study: Contact dermatitis appears among the most frequent occupational diseases particularly in hospital environment. Objectives of the study are to determine frequency of contact dermatitis in the university hospital of Mahdia, to emphasize the clinical profile of and find the causal allergens. We have carried out a transversal study concerning a representative sample of 225 hospital personals working in the university hospital of Mahdia. The study contained a questionnaire searching the dermatological risk, a clinical examination by a dermatologist for a diagnostic orientation and patch tests with European standard and additional series. Contact Dermatitis prevalence was 19, 1% [13.86 - 24.34]. Irritation was the most frequent [11.1%], followed by eczema [5.8%] and urticaria [2.2%]. The profile of the symptomatic staff is a worker or a nurse, from 30 to 40 years old and exercising in paediatrics or obstetrics services. Substances incriminated were gloves [34.9%], disinfectants and antiseptic [30.2%], medicines [16.3%], cleaners [16.3%] and colophony [4.6%]. Prevenvon is based on the replacement of incriminated products by others less aggressive, on the sensitization of the hospital staff towards the cutaneous risk inherent to their professional activity

[Food intake during and outside Ramadan]

We explored the effect of fasting in the month of Ramadan on the dietary pattern of a group of 130 healthy adults. During Ramadan, there was an increase in total energy intake, as a result of protein and lipid intake but not carbohydrate intake compared to the diet througout the rest of the year, in both students and parents. The meal eaten after sunset was an important contributor to calories [65%], lipids [74%], proteins [71%] and carbohydrates [56%]. These findings show the eating behaviour during Ramadan may contribute to improved nutritional status of people at risk of nutritional deficiency

Des difficultes de l'approche de la consommation alimentaire dans les hopitaux de Tunis

Dietary intake analysis of a patient in a hospital could help effectively in researching of alimentary risk factors and in establishing adequate care. Then, data obtained by dieteticians must be precise. The purpose of the present study was to identify the sufficient conditions to cary out the recall diet assessment of patients with realiability and reproductibility. A preliminary questionnaire tested was proposed to fourty dieteticians working in the seven main hospital of Tunis. We have approched methods and means used to hold aquiry and to estimate the divergence between dieteticians in the measure of energy intake from a meal initialy established. Our results show that half of dieteticians make investigation daily only three of them use logicials to calculate amounts of nutrients intake. The majority of dieteticians use nine different alimentary composition tables. The analysis of meal proposed showed significant differences in the estimation of energy intake [1789 to 3086] and in its repartition between lipids [31 to 55%], carbohydrates [33 to 71%] and proteins [13 to 93%]. The results strongly confirm that the evaluation of dietary intake is a complex undertaking because of its dependance on methods and means used by investigators. Making these techniques uniform is a necessary condition to obtain reproductible results