RESUMO
Maternal mortality is an index of the standard of antenatal care in a given environment. In developed countries the level of antenatal care has risen to an extent that maternal mortality has virtually disappeared (Nylander and Adekunle, 1990). This is in sharp contrast with the situation in developing countries like Nigeria where maternal mortality is still deplorably high. According to the World Health Organization, only 29-36% of deliveries in Africa are attended to by trained health personnel (World Health Organization, 1985). Therefore the mortality rates reported from most developing countries may be just the tip of the iceberg. Another disturbing dimension to the problem of maternal deaths in developing countries is the fact that most of the deaths are due to causes that can be prevented by the provision of essential obstetric care. Nearly a decade after the launching of the international safe motherhood initiative the tragedy of maternal deaths remains unmitigated in most developing countries such as Nigeria. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the causes of maternal deaths in two tertiary level hospitals in Maiduguri, north-eastern Nigeria and to identify ways of reversing the trend.
RESUMO
It has been proposed that the elimination of excess scar tissue from the body is achieved by specialized killer cells, which are activated by vascular changes in the scar tissue. The malignant tumor is, according to this theory, considered to be a special type of excess scar tissue of fetal or near fetal age, the fetal blood supply of which prevents the activation of those specialized killer cells which were believed to eliminate excess scar tissue. Therefore, it is assumed that if the specialized killer cells of a malignant tumor patient are activated artificially, they would cause malignant tumor regression in vivo. This method of treatment is called autobiotherapy because it utilizes biological products from the patient to treat his own malignant tumor. Preliminary evidence is presented in support of autobiotherapy of malignant tumor disease.The peripheral leucocytes of 27 malignant tumor patients were activated separately by incubation in a serum-free medium containing the respective tumor cells or material. The effect of the injection of the activated leucocytes or their products, termed tumor leucocyte cultures (TLC), was studied in five patients with Kaposi sarcoma, five with carcinoma of the breast, four with carcinoma of the cervix, three with soft tissue sarcoma, two with carcinoma of the lung, two with carcinoma of the maxillary antrium, and a miscellaneous group of six patients. In 52 percent of cases, there was significant tumor regression. Tumor regression was most marked in patients with Kaposi sarcoma, carcinoma of the cervix, pharynx, and pancreas, one patient with a slow growing fibrosarcoma, one patient with a metastatic breast carcinoma, and also in one patient with myelogenous leukemia. However, not all the types of tumor studied responded satisfactorily to autobiotherapy. The reasons for the differences in response to autobiotherapy remain to be determined. Even so, the positive results obtained indicate that autobiotherapy is worthy of further research as an alternative in controlling malignant tumor disease.
