Mechanical failures as a contributing cause to motor vehicle accidents South Africa.

Over the past decades motor vehicles became the primary mode of transportation in developing countries. At the same time an improvement in automotive engineering and manufacturing as well as the phenomena of urbanisation have resulted in more vehicles spending more time on the road at higher speeds. Invariably this leads to driving scenarios where safety critical manoeuvres have to be performed that rely on the mechanical condition of the vehicles. In developing countries, where economic realities force the population to make use of older and less reliable vehicles, the risk of accidents caused by some sort of mechanical failure increases. The casualty rate (events causing death and/or serious injuries) for road traffic accidents in South Africa is amongst the highest in the world. This trend has persisted with little variation over the years, despite the efforts of local road safety organisations and research institutes to decrease them. The main goal of this study was to establish the contribution of mechanical failures to motor vehicle accidents, and furthermore, to compare it with international trends. Data obtained from accident response units (ARU) indicate that tyres and brakes were the main contributors to mechanical failures resulting in accidents in the Pretoria region (Gauteng Province). However, the reported percentage of approximately 3% is comparable to similar statistics from developed countries. Detailed information on the condition of road-going vehicles was then collected in this area. The roadside survey (potential mechanical defect tests (PMDT)) indicated that 40% of the vehicles surveyed on the suburban road and 29% of the vehicles surveyed on the highway had mechanical defects that contravened current road and traffic regulations in South Africa and may, therefore, be at risk of causing an accident due to a mechanical failure. In the Minibus (taxi) survey, large irregularities in tyre inflation pressure were identified as a cause of concern. The main conclusion from this work is that tyres and brakes are the two most dominant components that contribute to the mechanical defects causing accidents, with overloading an additional factor to consider. It is important to acknowledge that these three factors can easily be monitored during simple roadside inspections.

Vitamin C supplementation reduces the incidence of postrace symptoms of upper-respiratory-tract infection in ultramarathon runners.

This study determined whether daily supplementation with 600 mg vitamin C would reduce the incidence of symptoms of upper-respiratory-tract (URT) infections after participation in a competitive ultramarathon race (> 42 km). Ultramarathon runners with age-matched controls were randomly divided into placebo and experimental (vitamin C-supplemented) groups. Symptoms of URT infections were monitored for 14 d after the race. Sixty-eight percent of the runners in the placebo group reported the development of symptoms of URT infection after the race; this was significantly more (P < 0.01) than that reported by the vitamin C-supplemented group (33%). The duration and severity of symptoms of URT infections reported in the vitamin C-supplemented nonrunning control group was also significantly less than in the nonrunning control group receiving the placebo (P < 0.05). This study provides evidence that vitamin C supplementation may enhance resistance to the postrace URT infections that occur commonly in competitive ultramarathon runners and may reduce the severity of such infections in those who are sedentary.

The impact of AIDS on blood transfusion services in South Africa.

The escalating incidence of AIDS in the African population will result in the occurrence of substantial numbers of transfusion-transmitted cases of AIDS. This can theoretically be controlled by using only blood from low-risk groups for the transfusion of cellular products, and using blood derived from the high-risk section of the community only for the production of plasma-derived products that can be virally inactivated. In the South Africa context, with its dichotomous first world and third world population, this will require certain steps which contravene various norms generally accepted by the blood transfusion discipline in Western Europe.

PIP: In South Africa the incidence of AIDS in the white community has remained relatively low, and largely confined to homosexuals, intravenous drug users, and prostitutes. In the black population it is primarily a heterosexual disease spread by normal heterosexual contact. A national epidemiological survey among women attending antenatal clinics was carried out by the South African Department of National Health in 1990. 14,376 antenatal samples were anonymously tested: Whites - 0.06% HIV positive; Coloreds - 0.16% HIV positive; and Blacks - 0.89% HIV positive. An analysis of blood donors showed a similar prevalence and revealed that the incidence was doubling every 8-10 months. The Border Blood Transfusion Service (BBTS) served a population of 5,731,000, comprising 5,594,000 Blacks and 137,000 Whites. In the area served by the BBTS, the incidence of HIV positivity in the white population was 0.02%. In the black community the incidence had reached 0.45%, and was doubling every 8-10 months. In the BBTS, 67% of the blood collected was from black donors. By applying exclusion criteria to high-risk groups in the white community, there had not been a single HIV positive among 102,724 donations collected since the inception of HIV testing in 1985. In the black community, out of 183,802 donations collected since the inception of HIV testing, 115 HIV positives were found. 114 were in the 17-39 year old group regarded as high risk, and only 1 occurred in the 40-year and older age group. Therefore, a recruiting program to be widely advertised was devised in which the individual would receive regular health reports after every 3rd blood donation, including his HIV status, at no cost. Routine tests done for every blood donor would be supplemented by carrying out additional tests: a more extensive clinical history and examination; a full hematological profile; a blood cholesterol level; and a careful appraisal of the donor's height and weight.