Publications by authors named "Katherine Tayler Smith"
Background: Trauma is a leading cause of death and represents a major problem in developing countries where access to good quality emergency care is limited. Médecins Sans Frontières delivered a standard package of care in two trauma emergency departments (EDs) in different violence settings: Kunduz, Afghanistan, and Tabarre, Haiti. This study aims to assess whether this standard package resulted in similar performance in these very different contexts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Among patients with primary and relapse visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in eastern Sudan, we determined the proportion eligible for treatment with sodium stibogluconate and paromomycin (SSG/PM) and, of these, their demographic and clinical characteristics; initial treatment outcomes including adverse side effects requiring treatment discontinuation; treatment outcomes by 6 months; and risk factors associated with initial (slow responders) and late treatment failure (relapses and post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis, PKDL).
Methods: A retrospective cohort study in Tabarak Allah Hospital, Gedaref Province, eastern Sudan, from July 2011 to January 2014.
Results: Of 1252 individuals diagnosed with VL (1151 primary and 101 relapses), 65% were eligible for SSG/PM including 83% children, almost half of them malnourished and anaemic.
Background: The World Health Organisation (WHO) introduced the twelve early warning indicators for monitoring and evaluating drug Procurement and Supply management (PSM) systems, intended to prevent drug stock-outs and overstocking. Nigeria--one of the high Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) burden countries, scaled-up treatment in 2012 with the concurrent implementation of a PSM system.
Method: We evaluated how well this system functioned using the WHO indicators, including all seven MDR-TB treatment centres in the country that were functional throughout 2013.
Setting: National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases (erstwhile Lala Ram Sarup Institute) in Delhi, India.
Objectives: To evaluate before and after the introduction of the line Probe Assay (LPA) a) the overall time to MDR-TB diagnosis and treatment initiation; b) the step-by-step time lapse at each stage of patient management; and c) the lost to follow-up rates.
Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis was done using data on MDR-TB patients diagnosed during 2009-2012 under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme at the institute.
Background: Atypical environmental conditions with drought followed by heavy rainfall and flooding in arid areas in sub-Saharan Africa can lead to explosive epidemics of malaria, which might be prevented through timely vector-control interventions.
Objectives: Wajir County in Northeast Kenya is classified as having seasonal malaria transmission. The aim of this study was to describe in Wajir town the environmental conditions, the scope and timing of vector-control interventions and the associated resulting burden of malaria at two time periods (1996-1998 and 2005-2007).
Background: We describe an innovative strategy implemented to support national staff at Istarlin Hospital in the conflict setting of Somalia; and report on inpatient morbidities, mortality and adverse hospital exit outcomes.
Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of hospital data for 2011.
Results: Of 8584 admitted patients, the largest numbers were for lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) (2114; 25%), normal deliveries (1355; 16%) and diarrhoeal diseases (715; 8%).
Background: In Fiji, patients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) currently submit three sputum specimens for smear microscopy for acid-fast bacilli, but there is little information about how well this practice is carried out.
Methods: A cross-sectional retrospective review was carried out in all four TB diagnostic laboratories in Fiji to determine among new patients presenting with suspected PTB in 2011: the quality of submitted sputum; the number of sputum samples submitted; the relationship between quality and number of submitted samples to smear-positivity; and positive yield from first, second and third samples.
Results: Of 1940 patients with suspected PTB, 3522 sputum samples were submitted: 997 (51.