Analysis of Food Toxin Trends in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Over Five Years Period.

INTRODUCTION: Alimentary toxoinfections represent a significant public health problem. Globalization of the market and food production, significant impoverishment of a large part of the population, and traditional approach with food preparation and consumption, cause a significant increase in the rates of population infections around the world. The epidemiological surveillance of the illness occurrence plays a significant role in monitoring and controlling the population's burden of diseases caused by unhygienically prepared and stored food. AIM: The aim of the article is to determine the rates and trends of food related diseases in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. RESULTS: The results of the analysis have shown that the rate of illness in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is declining but is still significantly higher than in developed western countries. Particularly great burden is on the population of the Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZDC), which can be due to the traditional relation to the preparation and storage of food, as well as to the relatively poorer economic situation in ZDC. CONCLUSION: We can conclude that the strengthening of the monitoring system, laboratory capacities, the availability of monitoring guides will enable responsible FBiH/Bosnia and Herzegovina institutions to better control and implement safer food practice.

Management of acute spontaneous thoracic spinal epidural hematoma causing paraplegia.

Aim To emphasize the importance of early recognition, diagnostic processing and emergent surgical treatment of spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma (SSEH). Methods A 39-year-old female presented with sudden onset of severe pain between the shoulder blades followed by paraparesis and alerted sensibility in the lower extremities. An hour later she developed paraplegia with sensory deficits below ThIV level, absence of patellar reflex, ankle jerk reflex and sphincter dysfunction. Results Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated acute extensive epidural mass of thoracic spinal segments (ThI-ThIII). The patient underwent emergent decompressive laminectomy ThI-ThIII with epidural hematoma evacuation within 24 hours of symptoms onset. After the surgical treatment, because of suspicion on spinal arteriovenous malformation, complete diagnostic evaluation with spinal angiography was done and no form of vascular malformation was found. Idiopathic SSEH was diagnosed. Two months later the patient reached complete neurological improvement. Conclusion The SSEH is a rare condition that should be kept in mind in patients presenting with neurological deficit and a sudden onset of back pain like it was in our case. For early diagnosis, immediate MRI is essential. Prompt surgical decompression such as laminectomy is an absolute surgical indication widely accepted for patients with progressive neurological deficit. The SSEH should be considered as one of the important differential diagnoses in patients who have developed acute myelopathy.

Quality of reporting on infectious diseases in Zenica-Doboj Canton.

GOAL: Reporting on infectious diseases is one of the most important measures for controlling the infectious diseases. In Bosnia and Herzegovina is in the implementation an archaic system of reporting, older than 20 years, which is incorporated into the partially reformed health system. The aim of this study is to determine and analyze the quality of keeping records of communicable diseases and quality of data obtained. It also sought to identify weaknesses in the system that contributes to poor reporting and poor data quality. METHODS: The study was retrospective-prospective, descriptive and analytical. Data were collected during June 2010 from all health facilities of Zenica-Doboj Canton. The data are collected from regular reports from medical institutions, received reports on contagious diseases, examination of 12.5% of the medical records of patients who were examined in June 2010, and the survey on 19% 9% physicians and 9% nurses. RESULTS: The survey showed that about 40% of infectious diseases do are not reported by individual application forms. Most often not reported are fungal infections (99.7% unreported) and intestinal infectious diseases. From found diseases in a sample of medical records reviewed, only 1.4% of them were reported. Health professionals in 51% agree that reporting is not satisfactory, and in 49% of the cases agree that the great merit of this situation have the management of health institutions and local epidemiologists who do not organize professional meetings regarding the reporting on infectious diseases. A large number of health professionals (40%) do not fill properly report on the illness, so we have a 58% incorrectly filled forms that arrived in the Institute of Public Health. CONCLUSIONS: The health workers from Zenica-Doboj Canton did not sufficiently developed awareness about the need to report infectious diseases. In order to overcome this situation, management of health care institutions must have a responsible attitude towards the medical documentation and records, and binding continued medical education of health professionals to raise awareness about the importance of proper medical documentation management.

The most frequent psychiatric disorders registered at day hospital of psychiatric clinic in sarajevo during 2006-2007.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: NONE DECLARED Day Hospital is an alternative to inpatient treatment as a transition from hospital to outpatient type of treatment, especially for those patients who cannot quickly return to the family, and patients who are unable to leave the usual social contacts so to them the hospitalization will pose a great mental risk. The aim of the research is to determine the structure of psychiatric morbidity, as well as demographic features and duration of hospitalization in patients treated at a Day Hospital of Psychiatric Clinic in Sarajevo during the period 2006-2007. The survey is conducted at the Psychiatric Clinic, Clinical Center of Sarajevo University as retrospective, based on observations of certain variables (gender, age, hospitalization duration), and the number of diagnosis. The results of the research show that the total number of registered patients in the observed period is 400. During the two year study there were more female (61.3%) than male patients (38.7%). Also, during the two years of research, most of those were with one diagnosis. The average hospitalization duration was 45 days, and the most often hospitalization duration was from 1 to 3 months. During both years, mostly present was the population in age group 46 to 65 years, followed by age group 26 to 44 years. Leading diseases during both years of research were from the group F30-F39, and the most common co-morbid diseases from groups: F30-F39, F40-F49 and F60-F69. We can conclude that Day Hospital has great significance in the mental health prevention. Daily structured program provides hospital diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of persons of both genders from different age groups and with diverse psychopathology.