ABSTRACT
SETTING: Tuberculosis (TB) affected households in impoverished shantytowns, Lima, Peru. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate socio-economic interventions for strengthening TB control by improving uptake of TB care and prevention services. DESIGN: Barriers to TB control were characterised by interviews with TB-affected families. To reduce these barriers, a multidisciplinary team offered integrated community and household socio-economic interventions aiming to: 1) enhance uptake of TB care by education, community mobilisation and psychosocial support; and 2) reduce poverty through food and cash transfers, microcredit, microenterprise and vocational training. An interim analysis was performed after the socio-economic interventions had been provided for 2078 people in 311 households of newly diagnosed TB patients for up to 34 months. RESULTS: Poverty (46% earned Subject(s)
Communicable Disease Control/economics
, Developing Countries/economics
, Health Care Costs
, Socioeconomic Factors
, Tuberculosis/economics
, Tuberculosis/prevention & control
, Community Networks/economics
, Financial Management/economics
, Health Behavior
, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
, Health Promotion/economics
, Health Services Accessibility/economics
, Humans
, Income
, Nutritional Status
, Patient Acceptance of Health Care
, Patient Education as Topic/economics
, Peru
, Poverty Areas
, Program Evaluation
, Risk Assessment
, Risk Factors
, Small Business/economics
, Social Support
, Time Factors
, Tuberculosis/diagnosis
, Tuberculosis/drug therapy
, Tuberculosis/psychology
, Vocational Education
ABSTRACT
Concern among patients, often prompted by medical practitioners, regarding the harmful effects of radiation caused by dental x-ray procedures, has caused several patients of the dental school of the University of Pretoria to refuse dental radiographic procedures. Buch and Fensham in a previous article demonstrated that radiation doses to the eyes and thyroid resulting from a single pantomogram constituted less than 10% of that which would be imparted by a transatlantic flight in terms of added natural background radiation. The authors in this study investigated doses to the same organs resulting from a full-mouth periapical series first using films and then digital imaging. Doses to the uterus resulting from these same examinations as well as from a pantomogram were also determined both with and without the use of a lead apron. Doses to the eye from a full-mouth examination using film compared favourably with those for a panoramic examination, but were much reduced when digital imaging techniques were employed. Doses to the uterus were small (equivalent to half a day of background radiation) for both a full-mouth examination using digital imaging, as well as for a pantomogram. However, from the results it would appear that there is little difference in the dose of scatter radiation to the uterus from a full-mouth examination whether or not a lead apron is used. The use of a lead apron for a pantomogram significantly reduces the dose to the uterus.