Schistosomiasis in Cameroon: an assessment of community knowledge pattern.

OBJECTIVE: Schistosomiasis is one of the most widespread of all human parasitic diseases and is a serious health problem in Cameroon despite tremendous efforts by health authorities. The purpose of this study was to determine community knowledge of the infection in order to evaluate control programmes put in place. METHODS: A random sampling method was used to administer questionnaires to 3200 individuals in 80 communities throughout the ten regions of the country. RESULTS: Globally the percentage of persons with good knowledge of schistosomiasis was low (28.8%). Of the 2586 who responded 1311 (50.7%) were females and 1275 (49.3%) were males. There was a statistically significant difference in the community knowledge pattern by gender (chi2 = 157.28, P < 0.05), and persons with good knowledge were more frequent among males than females (61.8% vs. 38.2% P < 0.05). The percentage of people who had good knowledge about the disease was highest in the Far North region (35.4), followed by the North (33.8) and the Southwest (31.1) regions. There was a statistically significant difference in community knowledge pattern of Schistosomiasis by region and gender (chi2 = 1265.648 P < 0.001). Also, there was a statistically significant difference in community knowledge pattern of by setting (chi2 = 38.538 P = 0.001) and the percentage of people who had a good knowledge of the disease was higher in rural areas than in urban areas (72.5% vs. 3.1% P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: was a low community knowledge pattern of schistosomiasis, mostly among the female population and among people living in urban areas. We advocated that health education should be adopted as one of the control strategies by the

Antiretroviral Treatment and Level of Transaminase in HIV-infected Out-Patients Attending the Central Hospital of Yaounde; Cameroon

The emergence of liver diseases as one of the major causes of death in people infected with HIV has paralleled the introduction of more effective antiretroviral therapies. This study was carried out with the aim of determining the effects of antiretroviral treatment on liver enzymes (SGOT and SGPT) in patients placed on antiretroviral therapy. A prospective cross-sectional 3 years study was carried out among patients confirmed to be HIV positive and who were to be placed on antiretroviral drugs at the HIV/AIDS out patient clinic of the Yaounde Central Hospital; Cameroon. Levels of transaminases of patients were measured in four phases using the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) protocol. Of the 150 patients who participated in the study; 54.0( 81/150) presented with elevated transaminase at the final phase of the study with respect to aspartate aminotransferase (AST); 77.78(63/81) of whose AST levels only increased after initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). 22.67(34/150) presented with elevated transaminase with respect to alanine aminotransferase (ALT). At the final phase; 70.58of whose ALT levels only increased after HAART initiation. Increase in blood transaminase levels was statistically independent on age group and the drug combinations. Increase in AST levels was associated with an increase in ALT levels upon treatment (r = 0.58). There was a significant positive linear relationship between duration of treatment and concentration of transaminases over the years (r= 0.9). We therefore concluded that highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is associated with low level hepatotoxicity at therapy initiation; regardless of drug class or combination