Publications by authors named "Bernard Okamo"
Mumps is an acute contagious viral disease caused by paramyxovirus characterized by complications that include orchitis, oophoritis, aseptic meningitis, and spontaneous abortion among many others. This study reports high mumps IgG seropositivity among school-aged children in rural areas of the Mbeya region, information that might be useful in understanding the epidemiology of mumps and instituting appropriate control measures including vaccination. Between May and July 2023, a cross-sectional study involving 196 enrolled children aged 5-13 years was conducted.
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- Acute febrile diseases from mosquitos pose diagnostic challenges for pediatricians in sub-Saharan Africa, leading to misclassification and inappropriate use of antibiotics and antimalarials.
- A study in Tanzania analyzed the efficacy of blood smear microscopy and rapid malaria diagnostic tests compared to a more accurate PCR-ELISA method.
- The findings revealed that rapid diagnostic tests had higher sensitivity and specificity, significantly reducing unnecessary antimalarial prescriptions in malaria-negative patients, thereby addressing issues of drug resistance.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates Rotavirus genotypes in Tanzania from 2013 to 2018, specifically after the introduction of the ROTARIX vaccine.
- A significant decline in Rotavirus positivity rates was noted, dropping from 29.3% to 17.8% over the study period, indicating the vaccine's effectiveness.
- The analysis revealed changes in circulating genotypes, with the G1P[8] strain decreasing significantly while the G9P[4] strain surged, which underscores the need for ongoing surveillance of Rotavirus strains post-vaccination.
Background: Urogenital pathogens such as and have been reported to cause pyuria, however they are not routinely cultured from urine samples of patients clinically diagnosed to have urinary tract infections (UTI). In this study, pathogen specific PCR was done to identify the urogenital pathogens in the urine samples among clinically diagnosed UTI patients with negative routine urine culture.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 227 archived urine samples from clinically diagnosed UTI patients with positive leucocyte esterase but negative urine culture results.
Upper-respiratory tract infections (URTI) are the leading causes of childhood morbidities. This study investigated etiologies and patterns of URTI among children in Mwanza, Tanzania. A cross-sectional study involving 339 children was conducted between October-2017 and February-2018.
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