Browsing by keyword "Tanzania"

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    • Etiology of Diarrhea, Nutritional Outcomes, and Novel Intestinal Biomarkers in Tanzanian Infants
      Gosselin, Kerri B.; Aboud, Said; McDonald, Christine M.; Moyo, Sabrina; Khavari, Nasim; Manji, Karim; Kisenge, Rodrick; Fawzi, Wafaie; Kellogg, Mark; Tran, Hao Q.; et al. (2017-01-01)
      OBJECTIVE: Diarrheal diseases are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, but the etiology of diarrhea and its relation to nutritional outcomes in resource-limited settings is poorly defined. We sought to determine the etiology of community-acquired diarrhea in Tanzanian infants and to assess the association with anthropometrics and novel intestinal biomarkers. METHODS: A convenience sample of infants in a trial of zinc and/or multivitamin supplementation in Tanzania was selected. Subjects were enrolled at age 6 weeks and studied for 18 months. Stool samples were obtained from children with acute diarrhea. A novel, polymerase chain reaction-based TaqMan array was used to screen stool for 15 enteropathogens. A subset of subjects had serum gastrointestinal biomarkers measured. RESULTS: One hundred twenty-three subjects with diarrhea were enrolled. The mean +/- SD age at stool sample collection was 12.4 +/- 3.9 months. Thirty-five enteropathogens were identified in 34 (27.6%) subjects: 11 rotavirus, 9 Cryptosporidium spp, 7 Shigella spp, 3 Campylobacter jejuni/coli, 3 heat stable-enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, and 2 enteropathogenic E coli. Subjects with any identified enteropathogen had significantly lower weight-for-length z scores (-0.55 +/- 1.10 vs 0.03 +/- 1.30, P = 0.03) at the final clinic visit than those without an identified pathogen. Fifty of the 123 subjects (40.7%) had serum analyzed for antibodies to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and flagellin. Subjects with any identified enteropathogen had lower immunoglobulin (IgA) antibodies to LPS (0.75 +/- 0.27 vs 1.13 +/- 0.77, P = 0.01) and flagellin (0.52 +/- 0.16 vs 0.73 +/- 0.47, P = 0.02) than those without an identified pathogen. CONCLUSIONS: This quantitative polymerase chain reaction method may allow identification of enteropathogens that place children at higher risk for suboptimal growth. IgA anti-LPS and flagellin antibodies hold promise as emerging intestinal biomarkers.

    • Intramedullary Nailing Versus External Fixation in the Treatment of Open Tibial Fractures in Tanzania: Results of a Randomized Clinical Trial
      Haonga, Billy T.; Liu, Max; Albright, Patrick; Challa, Sravya T.; Ali, Syed H.; Lazar, Ann A.; Eliezer, Edmund N.; Shearer, David W.; Morshed, Saam (2020-05-20)
      BACKGROUND: Open tibial fractures are common injuries in low and middle-income countries, but there is no consensus regarding treatment with intramedullary nailing versus external fixation. The purpose of the present study was to compare the outcomes of initial treatment with intramedullary nailing or external fixation in adults with open tibial fractures. METHODS: We conducted a randomized clinical trial (RCT) at a tertiary orthopaedic center in Tanzania. Adults with acute diaphyseal open tibial fractures were randomly assigned to statically locked, hand-reamed intramedullary nailing or uniplanar external fixation. The primary outcome was death or reoperation for the treatment of deep infection, nonunion, or malalignment. Secondary outcomes included quality of life as measured with the EuroQol-5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) questionnaire, radiographic alignment, and healing as measured with the modified Radiographic Union Scale for Tibial fractures (mRUST). RESULTS: Of the 240 patients who were enrolled, 221 (92.1%) (including 111 managed with intramedullary nailing and 110 managed with external fixation) completed 1-year follow-up. There were 44 primary outcome events (with rates of 18.0% and 21.9% in the intramedullary nailing and external fixation groups, respectively) (relative risk [RR] = 0.83 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.49 to 1.41]; p = 0.505). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of the rate of deep infection. Intramedullary nailing was associated with a lower risk of coronal malalignment (RR = 0.11 [95% CI, 0.01 to 0.85]; p = 0.01) and sagittal malalignment (RR = 0.17 [95% CI, 0.02 to 1.35]; p = 0.065) at 1 year. The EQ-5D index favored intramedullary nailing at 6 weeks (mean difference [MD] = 0.07 [95% CI = 0.03 to 0.11]; p < 0.001), but this difference dissipated by 1 year. Radiographic healing (mRUST) favored intramedullary nailing at 6 weeks (MD = 1.2 [95% CI = 0.4 to 2.0]; p = 0.005), 12 weeks (MD = 1.0 [95% CI = 0.3 to 1.7]; p = 0.005), and 1 year (MD = 0.8 [95% CI = 0.2 to 1.5]; p = 0.013). CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, the present study is the first RCT assessing intramedullary nailing versus external fixation for the treatment of open tibial fractures in sub-Saharan Africa. Differences in primary events were not detected, and only coronal alignment significantly favored the use of intramedullary nailing. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level I. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

    • Surveillance for sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine resistant malaria parasites in the Lake and Southern Zones, Tanzania, using pooling and next-generation sequencing
      Ngondi, Jeremiah M.; Hathaway, Nicholas J.; Bailey, Jeffrey A.; Gutman, Julie (2017-06-05)
      BACKGROUND: Malaria in pregnancy (MiP) remains a major public health challenge in areas of high malaria transmission. Intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is recommended to prevent the adverse consequences of MiP. The effectiveness of SP for IPTp may be reduced in areas where the dhps581 mutation (a key marker of high level SP resistance) is found; this mutation was previously reported to be common in the Tanga Region of northern Tanzania, but there are limited data from other areas. The frequency of molecular markers of SP resistance was investigated in malaria parasites from febrile patients at health centres (HC) in seven regions comprising the Lake and Southern Zones of mainland Tanzania as part of the ongoing efforts to generate national-wide data of SP resistance. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the outpatient departments of 14 HCs in seven regions from April to June, 2015. 1750 dried blood spot (DBS) samples were collected (117 to 160 per facility) from consenting patients with positive rapid diagnostic tests for malaria, and no recent (within past 2 months) exposure to SP or related drugs. DNA was extracted from the DBS, pooled by HC, and underwent pooled targeted amplicon deep sequencing to yield estimates of mutated parasite allele frequency at each locus of interest. RESULTS: The dhps540 mutation was common across all 14 sites, ranging from 55 to 98.4% of sequences obtained. Frequency of the dhps581 mutation ranged from 0 to 2.4%, except at Kayanga HC (Kagera Region, Lake Zone) where 24.9% of sequences obtained were mutated. The dhfr164 mutation was detected only at Kanyanga HC (0.06%). CONCLUSION: By pooling DNA extracts, the allele frequency of mutations in 14 sites could be directly determined on a single deep-sequencing run. The dhps540 mutant was very common at all locations. Surprisingly, the dhps581 was common at one health center, but rare in all the others, suggesting that there is geographic micro-heterogeneity in mutant distribution and that accurate surveillance requires inclusion of multiple sites. A better understanding of the effect of the dhps581 mutant on the efficacy of IPTp-SP is needed.