Alternative medicine; the tendency of using complimentary alternative medicine in patients of different hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan

From ancient times, humankind has used self-created traditional methods for handling the illnesses and continues to use them along with modern medicine. Even today, more than 70% of the world's population still depends on the complementary and alternative systems of medicine [CAM]. The objective of this study is to create awareness of health hazards with the use of CAM therapies and to find out its utility among Pakistani population. Comprehensive questionnaire was developed for the study on the use of CAM and was distributed to 470 patients/attendants in different hospitals of Lahore as well as major hospitals and clinical setups in the peripheral regions of Lahore, Pakistan. Over all, the response rate of the study was 81.7% while 78.1 % population found as CAM user. The most common type of alternative medicine used by patients is from Hakeem [Natural Therapist] which is about 17% and the most frequent disease for which patients often go for CAM therapy is liver diseases [19%]. Respondents found inclined towards CAM only due to its marketed false benefits and not because of their dissatisfaction with conventional therapy. A noteworthy population of Pakistan is using CAM therapies from different practitioners, irrespective of any education and awareness about their disease and long-term drawbacks because of improper treatment of the disease. Though adverse events due to the use of CAM therapy are not unusual still a delay in the proper treatment usually ends up in serious consequences and even loss of lives

Antibiotic therapy in pyogenic meningitis in paediatric patients

To isolate and identify the causative pathogen, antibiotic sensitivity testing and success rate of empirical antibiotic therapy in pyogenic meningitis. Analytical study. The Children's Hospital and Institute of Child Health, Lahore, Pakistan, from March to July 2012. The study was performed on 72 culture positive meningitis cases in children less than 15 years of age. This therapy was evaluated by monitoring the patient's clinical picture for 14 - 21 days. The collected data was analyzed by Chi-square test. Seventeen different bacteria were isolated. The most commonly occurring bacteria were coagulase negative Staphylococci [25%], E.coli [12.5%], Klebsiella pneumoniae [8.3%], Streptococcus pneumoniae [8.3%] and Pseudomonas aeruginosa [8.3%]. All the bacteria were sensitive to vancomycin [96.7%], meropenem [76.7%], amikacin [75%], ciprofloxacin [65.3%], chloramphenicol [46.5%], ceftazidime [44.2%], cefepime [41.9%], co-amoxiclav [38.0%], oxacillin [34.8%], cefotaxime [21.4%], penicillin [20.7%], ceftriaxone [18.6%], cefuroxime [14%] and ampicillin [6.9%]. The combination of sulbactam and cefoperazone showed antimicrobial sensitivity of 81.4%. The success rate of empirical antibiotic therapy was 91.7%. It was found that Gram negative bacteria were the major cause of pyogenic meningitis. Mostly there were resistant strains against all commonly used antibiotics except vancomycin. All empirical antibiotic therapies were found to be most successful