[Performances of an automated dispensing system combined with a computerized prescription order entry]. / Performances d'une solution associant l'automate de délivrance Pillpick au logiciel de prescription Pharma utilisée pour une activité de dispensation à délivrance nominative dans une unité de consultation et de soins ambulatoire.

INTRODUCTION: Performances of an automated dispensing system Pillpick (Swisslog) coupled with the computerized-prescribing - order-entry software and dispensing software Pharma (Computer Engineering) implemented at the opening of a new prison facility in Meaux were quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated. Pillpick allows the treatment of different and varied pharmaceutical forms without imposing bulk handling or depackaging. METHOD: This study conducted between July and September 2006 focused on the performances of the automated dispensing system in terms of single dose packaging, single dose dispensing, dispensing error rate and security of the medication circuit. RESULTS: Seventy-six plus or minus five percent of the prescribed medications were automated dispensed. Packaging working flow rate was 377 units doses per hour, dispensing working flow rate was 537 doses per hour. Dispensing error rate was 0.5%, due to wrong delivery orders mainly generated by the Pharma computer-order entry software. DISCUSSION: Automated dispensing systems Pillpick ensure safe drug dispensing. Potential drug errors can possibly be generated by the computerized-prescribing - order-entry software and dispensing software. CONCLUSION: The robot-software combination constitutes the key performance parameter.

Power, pleasure, pain, and shame: assimilating gender and sexuality into community-centred reproductive health and HIV prevention programmes in India.

Inspired by the vision of the Millennium Declaration, CARE and ICRW (International Centre for Research on Women) partnered with the Inner Spaces, Outer Faces Initiative (ISOFI) to learn how to more effectively integrate gender and sexuality into CARE's sexual and reproductive health programmes. Drawing from lessons learned from gender mainstreaming, ISOFI focuses initially on fostering personal change among staff, helping them to explore their own gender and sexuality 'baggage' and supporting transformation of their 'inner space'. ISOFI then gradually integrates mechanisms to promote organizational change, and finally extends to community development practice, the 'outer face'. As a system promoting change in organizational culture and practice, ISOFI features structured iterative loops of reflection and learning, action and experimentation, and analysis and assimilation. This article describes the ISOFI Innovation System, and reports on ISOFI-generated learning and innovation in sex positive HIV prevention programming for truckers and reproductive health interventions for women in India.

[Radiographic and ultrasonographic diagnosis of a left thoracic mass]. / Diagnostic radiologique et échographique d'une masse thoracique gauche.

A chest roentgenogram of a 69-year-old man undergoing a check-up before prostate surgery showed a mass in the antero-inferior zone of the lung, just above the diaphragm. At ultrasonography, it was considered to be a thoracic ectopic kidney. This radiological case illustrates the place of this anomaly in the differential diagnosis of lung solitary mass, which can be explored with ultrasonography when retroperitoneal herniation is suspected.

[Vaccination against malaria: initial trial with an ant-sporozoite vaccine, (NANP)3-TT (RO 40-2361) in Africa (Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso)]. / Vaccination contre le paludisme: premier essai avec un vaccin antisporozoïte, le (NANP)3-TT (RO 40-2361) en Afrique (Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso).

The vaccine (NANP)3-TT is a synthetic peptide of the circumsporozoite protein (CS) of Plasmodium falciparum coupled to tetanus toxoid (TT) as protein carrier and adsorbed to aluminium hydroxide as adjuvant. The objectives of the study were to assess the immunogenicity and the protective efficacy of the vaccine in an area where malaria is endemic. The study was conducted in a zone of irrigated rice cultivation known as the Vallée du Kou to the North of Bobo-Dioulasso. Malaria transmission is permanent in the Vallée with maxima in July and November. The study was conducted from June to December 1988. It was a controlled randomised, double blind, prospective vaccine trial. A total of 123 infants from 3 to 5 months of age were randomly assigned to three groups. Group I (controls) received three doses of TT alone, group II received two doses of TT and one of (NANP)3-TT and group III received three doses of (NANP)3-TT. These vaccines were administered simultaneously with the Enlarged Program of Immunisation (EPI) vaccines. The clinical parasitological and immunological status of the children was then monitored over a period of five months. No systemic reactions to the vaccine were observed in the infants either immediately after administration or during the follow-up. Minor local tumefactions were observed in only 3% of the children. The vaccine was found to be immunogenic with a peak IgG response at day 75, when 56% (group II) and 60% (group III) showed antibody titres of at least four times that seen at day 0. The response, however, was a short duration; by day 150 the average antibody titres were not significantly different between the three groups. The incidence and the level of parasiaemia and the incidence of clinical malaria were also not significantly different for each of the three groups during the period of the study. The association of (NANP)3 with tetanus toxoid was not shown to be immunologically inhibitive. The results, despite not showing a protective effect for the vaccine (NANP)3-TT, have shown its immunogenicity and therefore suggest that further development of this vaccine may be worthwhile.