Stigma reduction and improved knowledge and attitudes towards filariasis using a comic book for children

WHO has initiated a global program for lymphatic filariasis [LE] elimination by the year 2020. A comic book was designed to improve the knowledge and attitudes of Egyptian schoolchildren, which included messages on the acceptability of mass drug administration [MDA] and stigma reduction. Comic book administration significantly reduced the fear of the studied children from LF as a killer disease. It helped in positively changing the attitudes of the children towards elephantiasis patients. The comic book also reduced the number of children who had stated that they would avoid someone with LF. Knowledge about the ability of treating and preventing LF was also significantly increased among children after reading the comic book. Moreover, comic book reading helped in raising the awareness towards MDA as the method of choice in preventing LF

Evaluation of incidental laparoscopic appendectomy for acute right lower quadrant abdominal pain

The procedure of incidental laparoscopic appendectomy during diagnostic laparoscopy for acute right lower quadrant abdominal pain was evaluated in fifty patients over a three-year period. Twenty-five patients underwent diagnostic laparoscopy alone [group I], while the other twenty-five patients underwent diagnostic laparoscopy with incidental laparoscopic appendectomy [group II]. There was no difference in length of hospitalization or morbidity between the two groups. No mortality or intraoperative sepsis were recorded. Two patients required appendectomy eleven days and twenty days, respectively, after diagnostic laparoscopy for recurrent acute right lower quadrant abdominal pain. 8% of the resected appendices demonstrated acute inflammation upon pathologic review