A case of a 62-year-old male with Actinomycetoma successfully treated using combined medical and surgical therapy

INTRODUCTION@#Actinomycetoma is a neglected infectious disease that presents with a triad of subcutaneous mass, with sinus formation and seropurulent discharge containing grains. This causes severe functional disability to patients if not treated early and properly.@*CASE REPORT@#We report a case of a 62-year-old adult Filipino farmer diagnosed with actinomycetoma of the left foot. For 8 years, the patient medicated with several antibiotic therapies affording minimal improvement of symptoms. Hence, surgical intervention with combination antimicrobial therapy was done which provided resolution of symptoms, improving the quality of life of the patient.@*CONCLUSION@#Treatment of actinomycetoma must be individualized among patients. Although oral antibiotics became the standard of treatment, combining surgical treatment with oral medications may be considered to ensure effective management of the disease.

Translation and validation of a scale on the health care providers’ Attitudes Towards Persons Living With Leprosy (AT-PLWL)

Introduction@#Leprosy is a chronic, progressive, and complex disease. One of the factors contributing to the quality of case detection and treatment compliance is the attitudes of health care providers towards leprosy patients. Assessment of the attitudes of HCP towards leprosy patients is crucial because this is where leprosy patients base their care-seeking behaviors; hence, the creation of this scale.@*Objectives@#To create and validate a functionally equivalent Filipino translation of the HCP AT-PLWL scale.@*Methods@#A validity study was conducted into two phases. In Phase I, the AT-PLWL scale was translated (forward-back method) into Filipino, which underwent a cognitive debriefing (face validity) and pre-testing to 30 health care providers. In Phase 2, the reconciled forward translation underwent face and content validity and was pilot-tested to 100 health care providers. Reliability, both internal consistency and test-retest, were assessed via calculating Cronbach’s α and intra-class correlation coefficient, respectively.@*Results@#Content and face validity showed that all items in the scale were relevant. Cronbach’s α showed an adequate internal consistency of greater than 0.7 while the intra-class correlation coefficient of responses was greater than 0.80, indicating good correlation.@*Conclusion@#Overall, the final translated Filipino version of AT-PLWL scale is valid and reliable; hence, could serve as a tool to evaluate HCP’s attitudes.