Knowledge and management of fever among Moroccan parents

Parents often have misperceptions about childhood fever, and little information is available about the home management of feverish children in Morocco. In this study of the perceptions, knowledge and practices of families regarding children's fever, the parents of 264 febrile children aged 0-16 years were interviewed in a paediatric emergency department in Rabat in 2011. Only 3.5% of parents knew the correct temperature definition for fever, 54.4% determined their children's fever using a thermometer, and the preferred site was rectal. Most of them [96.8%] considered that fever was a very serious condition, which could lead to side-effects such as brain damage [28.9%], seizures [18.8%] paralysis [19.5%], dyspnoea [14.8%] and coma [14.8%]. Paracetamol was used by 85.9% and traditional treatments by 45.1%. Knowledge about the correct definition of fever was significantly associated with parents' profession, educational level and receipt of previous information and advice from health professionals

Detection of Mycobacterial antigen and antibody in patients with tuberculosis and their association with therapy

Little is known about changes in total antibodies occurring during the progression of tuberculosis or its treatment. Using passive and reverse passive hemagglutination methods, mycobacterial antibody and antigen were determined in sera of patients with acute smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis. Fifty-nine patients were studied in different groups according to the duration of treatment in various stages of disease. The first group that did not undergo treatment showed a very low level of antibody. The second group with less than 6 months of therapy had a mean antibody titer of about 1:70. The third group underwent therapy for more than 6 months and their mean antibody titer was about 1:970. The fourth group whose disease was under control and their treatments were discontinued, showed the highest level of antibodies [1:2760]. A significant difference was found between the average antibody titers and the duration of treatment and course of disease. No antigen was detected in any patients except in group 5. A high antibody response seemed to occur after treatment when the bacteria were disrupted and their antigens released. Absence of antigen may be due to the formation of antigen-antibody complexes

Sodium valproate-induced potentiation of antiherpetic effect of acyclovir

Sodium valproate [VPA], an anticonvalsant drug, has been reported to stimulate viral replication. A combination therapy with VPA and acyclovir [ACV] is used for the treatment of herpesvirus encephalitis, the commonest sporadic encephalitis of viral origin. To determine a possible interaction between VPA and ACV leading to a modification of antiviral activity of ACV. Cultured Hela cells were treated with 5 micro M of ACV and various concentrations of VPA followed by infection with herpes simplex virus type 1 [HSV-1]. Virus replication was monitored by quantal assay. Further investigations comprised electron microscopy, immunoperoxidase and immunoblot procedures. Possible chemical interaction between VPA and ACV was studied by nuclear magnetic resonance [NMR] spectrometer. Combined treatment of infected cells with ACV and VPA revealed 50- to 250-fold potentiation of antiviral activity of ACV by increasing VPA concentrations. Examination by NMR spectrometer showed a strong chemical interaction between amino groups of ACV and carboxyl part of VPA. The present in vitro studies should be paralleled by appropriate in vivo investigations, and if substantiated, a combination therapy with ACV and VPA may supersede single ACV therapy for herpesvirus encephalitis. Further studies are thus needed to establish which of VPA metabolites or newly-formed compounds is accountable for augmentation of antiviral effect of ACV

Detection of antibody to toxoplasma gondii by immune adherence hemagglutination: an increased sensitivity by a lysate antigen

The antibody titers to Toxoplasma gondii in sera of 55 patients presumed to have toxoplasmosis were measured by immune adherence hemagglutination with both lysate antigen and whole organism. The results were compared with antibody tilers detected by immunofluorescent antibody tests performed with fluorescein-tagged anti-IgG and anti-IgM. The use of Toxoplasma lysate antigen significantly increased the sensitivity of the immune adherence hemagglutination test, particularly at higher serum dilutions, compared with the same test performed with whole organism. The immunofluorescent antibody test with anti-IgM demonstrated a greater number of seropositives, notably at antibody tilers of 512 to 1024 than a similar test with anti-IgG. Sera from 22 normal individuals were also tested by immune adherence hemagglutination with lysate and with whole Toxoplasma antigen. The latter showed no antibody liter, whereas the former detected low liters of antibody in 13 cases of which the majority ranged between two and eight The results obtained show that immune adherence hemagglutination with Toxoplasma gondii lysate antigen in microplate provides a simple and highly sensitive test for the serodiagnosis of toxoplasmosis

immune adherence hemagglutination: a new microimmunoassay for the serodiagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis

This report describes immune adherence hemagglutination as a new micro-immunoassay for the serodiagnosis of Leishmania donovani infection. Comparison of the results of immune adherence hemagglutination with those of indirect immunofluorescence assay, showed a close agreement between the two procedures. Sera from fifteen patients with confirmed parasitological evidence [positive splenic aspirate] of visceral leishmaniasis, as well as, fifteen sera from control children under 10 years of age and four normal adults were included in the study. Titers ranging from 128 to 2048 were obtained with immune adherence hemagglutination in patients and negative titers in the control children. The test appeared to be more discriminating with respect to the antigenic burden of the spleen and more sensitive than immunofluorescence assay. Compared with other conventional and sensitive laboratory tests for the serodiagnosis of leishmaniasis, the minimum requirement, rapidity, simplicity and local availability of reagents render the immune adherence hemagglutination a practical immunoassay for measuring specific antibody in those geographic locations where laboratory facilities are limited