Immersive virtual reality to assess unilateral spatial neglect in stroke patients: a preliminary study.

Objectives: The conventional test to detect unilateral spatial neglect (USN) is the Bells Test performed in a paper-and-pencil format. While several studies showed immersive virtual reality (VR) tests may provide greater sensitivity in revealing the presence of USN using visual scanning tasks, none has investigated the Bells Test in VR. This study compares the Bells Test performed in paper-and-pencil format (PP) and in VR in conventional (CVR) and ecological (EVR) format, which differ by the size of the display, in stroke patients.

[Practical approach to lung health strategy in Algeria].

Setting: A total of 77 health care facilities in 10 provinces.

Objective: To perform a feasibility study before the extension of the Practical Approach to Lung (PAL) health strategy.

Method: A cross-sectional study comparing before and after findings of a training course for general practitioners.

Implementation of fixed-dose combinations in tuberculosis control: outline of responsibilities.

Fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) of antituberculosis drugs have been available on the world market for more than forty years. For more than twenty years rifampicin-containing FDCs have become increasingly visible on the market in combinations of two, three and even four fixed-dose combinations, but in different dosages depending on the country and the region. As a result, instead of simplifying tuberculosis treatment and the application of standardised chemotherapy regimens, the situation has become progressively more complicated, and at the same time neither bioavailability nor patients' safety is guaranteed.

Global surveillance for antituberculosis-drug resistance, 1994-1997. World Health Organization-International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Working Group on Anti-Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance.

Background: Drug-resistant tuberculosis threatens efforts to control the disease. This report describes the prevalence of resistance to four first-line drugs in 35 countries participating in the World Health Organization-International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Global Project on Anti-Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance between 1994 and 1997.

Methods: The data are from cross-sectional surveys and surveillance reports.

After health sector reform, whither lung health?

Health sector reform, which is currently taking place in low or middle income countries following the implementation of structural adjustment programmes, advocates the use of rational measures aimed at increasing the efficiency of the health services. These measures are being applied unevenly. Cuts in governments' social budgets have had the effect of favouring the development of the private medical and pharmaceutical sector, rather than rationalising the choice of priorities.

[Control of tuberculosis in refugees and displaced].

As a result of national and international conflicts, the number of refugees and displaced persons in various countries of the world is increasing. The complex and protracted nature of these conflicts often forces refugees to remain away from their countries for long periods, living in refugee camps. Many refugees come from countries where tuberculosis is endemic and, once the immediate problems of establishing a camp are overcome, this disease becomes the principal problem affecting refugee camps.

Surveillance of drug resistance for tuberculosis control: why and how?

The resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to antibiotics, which reflects the quality of the chemotherapy applied in the community, is one of the elements of epidemiological surveillance used in national tuberculosis programmes. Measurement of drug resistance poses problems for biologists in standardization of laboratory methods and quality control. The definition of rates of acquired and primary drug resistance also necessitates standardization in the methods used to collect information transmitted by clinicians.

[Clinical trial of a combination of three drugs in fixed proportions in the treatment of tuberculosis. Groupe de Travail sur la Chimiothérapie de la Tuberculose].

Setting: The Matiben Chest Clinic at the West Algiers University Teaching Hospital, and 3 outpatient clinics specializing in tuberculosis and lung disease in Algiers.

Objective: To determine the tolerance and efficacy of a fixed proportion combination of 3 antituberculosis drugs (per tablet: 50 mg isoniazid + 120 mg rifampicin + 300 mg pyrazinamide) given during the first 2 months of a daily 6-month chemotherapy regimen.

Design: Random prospective treatment trial comparing a group of 124 patients receiving the triple combination with another group of 126 patients receiving the 3 drugs separately during the initial treatment phase.

The supply of antituberculosis drugs: price evolution.

The cost of antituberculosis drugs and chemotherapy regimens has fallen sharply in the last 2 years. This evolution in the international market, although attenuated by local currency devaluation, should encourage the directors of national tuberculosis programmes to quantify their needs more clearly and to organise centralised purchasing of antituberculosis drugs from non-profitmaking suppliers offering quality controlled generic drugs at the lowest prices.

[Curative treatment of tuberculosis in the world].

Recent WHO recommendations for the treatment of tuberculosis have emphasized the need for simplicity and standardization of short term chemotherapy regims which can be applied in all forms of tuberculosis, including both pulmonary and extrapulmonary forms. But in order for the recommended chemotherapy regimes to be effective, there is a need for precise organization. Patient care must begin with the first consultation, dosage must be adapted to patient weight, drug intake must, at least during the initial phase of treatment, be supervised and patients who are absent or irregular should be recalled, surveillance and correction of rare side effects should be recorded, global consideration of the patient's medical and social problems and laboratory (and clinical) check-ups at the end of the initial phase of treatment and again at the end of treatment.

The supply of antituberculosis drugs and national drugs policies.

The money necessary for purchasing antituberculosis drugs in a national programme comes from the Public Health Services budget, funds from the health insurance scheme (when it exists) and household budgets. The Public Health Services budget is on average $2-23 US per year and per person in low or middle income countries. Average drug consumption in these groups of countries was from $2-26 US per person in 1990.

[Acute respiratory infections of viral origin in the children of Algiers, Algeria based on a seroepidemiological study].

401 double serum samples from 0 to 14 year old children with acute respiratory diseases (ARD) were analysed in view to establish the viral etiology. 198 (49.4%) out of the 401 were positive.