To investigate the relationships between helminth infections and iron status among school-aged children, 1,115 Tanzanian children in grades 2 through 5 were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. The children in the treatment group were screened for infection with Schistosoma haematobium and hookworm at baseline, 3 months, and 15 months; infected children were given albendazole against hookworm and praziquantel against schistosomiasis. The control group received a placebo and did not undergo parasitological screening until 15 months after the baseline.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCross-sectional studies of the relationship between helminth infection and cognitive function can be informative in ways that treatment studies cannot. However, interpretation of results of many previous studies has been complicated by the failure to control for many potentially confounding variables. We gave Tanzanian schoolchildren aged 9-14 a battery of 11 cognitive and three educational tests and assessed their level of helminth infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Conflicting results have been reported on the ability of dietary carotenoids to improve vitamin A status in lactating women. Red palm oil is one of the richest dietary sources of beta-carotene.
Objective: We aimed to determine the efficacy of red palm oil in increasing retinol and provitamin A status in pregnant and lactating women.
Trop Med Int Health
November 2000
We evaluated the effect of weekly doses of 400 mg of ferrous sulphate for 4 months on the iron status of adolescent girls in a controlled trial in Tanga, Tanzania. Supplementation led to a significantly greater increase in serum ferritin compared with the control group (+ 15.6 microg/l vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe health of 227 children enrolled at primary school was compared with that of 214 non enrolled children living in rural Tanga, Tanzania. No consistent difference was observed with respect to prevalence and intensity of parasitic infection (hookworm, T. trichiura, A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrop Med Int Health
November 1999
The impact of albendazole (400 mg) and praziquantel (40 mg/kg body weight) treatment of schoolchildren was compared with placebo according to the presence of anaemia (haemoglobin concentration < 11. 0 g/dl) and heavy (> 5000 epg) or light (< 5000 epg) hookworm egg load. The study was conducted in rural Tanga.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWorld J Microbiol Biotechnol
November 1992
A natural lactic fermentation of mixtures of water and whole flour of either maize or high-tannin sorghum was obtained either before or after cooking to a weaning gruel: The preparations had a final pH of about 3.8 (range 3.67 to 4.
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