ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Obesity has been declared an epidemic in many high income countries. In low income countries, the coexistence of obesity and underweight makes the situation more grievous. The priority is to explore the overall pictures of body weight status in low income countries and countries that are in transitional phase. Through this country wide cross sectional study we would like to capture the current body weight status among the school aged children, both in urban and rural areas in Bangladesh. METHODS: We conducted a countrywide cross sectional study, from June to September 2009. By random sampling, we selected 10,135 students from 6 to 15 years from both the urban and rural schools. We categorized the students into overweight, obese and underweight by using the values for age and sex at +1SD, +2SD and -2 SD of Z scores of BMI respectively. RESULTS: We observed among 6 to 15 year olds from both the urban and rural areas 3.5% were obese, 9.5% were overweight and 17.6% were underweight. The proportion of obese and overweight students were greater among the students from urban schools (5.6%, 10.6%) compared to the students from rural schools (1.2%, 8.6%) (RD = 4.3, 95% CI = 3.6, 5.0; RD = 2.0, 95% CI = 0.1, 3.1). The proportion of underweight students were lower in the urban schools (16.1%) compared to the rural schools (19.2%) (RD = -3.1; 95% CI = -4.6, -1.6) CONCLUSIONS: The rate of obesity and overweight is alarming among school aged children in Bangladesh. Overweight and underweight are coexisting which needs special attention to minimize the dual burden.
Subject(s)
Overweight/epidemiology , Pediatric Obesity/epidemiology , Thinness/epidemiology , Adolescent , Bangladesh , Child , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Humans , Male , PrevalenceABSTRACT
The magnitude of animal bite and utilization of rabies vaccine was determined at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh. From January 2004 to December 2008, 150,068 patients with animal bite visited the hospital, 86.2% and 13.8% of them received nerve tissue and tissue culture vaccine (TCV), respectively. Dog bite was most frequent, found in 90.7% cases. In 794 rabies cases only 24.4% had a history of post-exposure vaccination. Only a negligible number of patients received rabies immunoglobulin (RIG). To prevent further human deaths and economic losses intra-dermal TCV regime and equine RIG should be immediately introduced in Bangladesh.
Subject(s)
Bites and Stings/epidemiology , Rabies Vaccines/administration & dosage , Rabies/prevention & control , Vaccination/statistics & numerical data , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Animals , Bangladesh/epidemiology , Bites and Stings/complications , Child , Child, Preschool , Dogs , Female , Humans , Immunoglobulin G/therapeutic use , Infant , Male , Middle Aged , Prevalence , Rabies Vaccines/immunology , Young AdultABSTRACT
Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia are common obstetrical problem causing adverse effects on pregnancy outcome. Large bodies of evidences suggest that hyperhomocysteinemia is a causal factor of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia. This study designed to explore the association between hyperhomocysteinemia and pre-eclampsia/eclampsia, the knowledge of which expected to be used for prevention of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. In a case-control study serum homocysteine was measured in 136 controls (healthy pregnant), 84 pre-eclamptic and 120 eclamptic pregnant women. Serum homocysteine in patients with pre-eclampsia (9.54 +/- 3.21 micromol/L) and eclampsia (10.57 +/- 3.39 micromol/L) found to be significantly increased compared to controls (6.86 +/- 2.47 micromol/L) (p < 0.001). Between pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, homocysteine found to be raised more in eclampsia compared to pre-eclampsia (p < 0.03). In conclusion, hyperhomocysteinemia is associated with pre-eclampsia as well as eclampsia, but in eclampsia the severity of homocysteine elevation is more compared to that in pre-eclampsia.
