Safety and yield of sputum induction for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in children in a tertiary hospital in Ghana.

Background: Induced sputum (IS) is a sampling technique for obtaining lower airway samples for microbial investigations, including GeneXpert and culture for microbiological confirmation of .

Objectives: To investigate the safety and yield of IS in children admitted to a tertiary hospital in Ghana with presumed pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB).

Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was carried out in children aged 3 months - 14 years at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana, over the 6-month period January - June 2022.

Immediate "Kangaroo Mother Care" and Survival of Infants with Low Birth Weight.

Background: "Kangaroo mother care," a type of newborn care involving skin-to-skin contact with the mother or other caregiver, reduces mortality in infants with low birth weight (<2.0 kg) when initiated after stabilization, but the majority of deaths occur before stabilization. The safety and efficacy of kangaroo mother care initiated soon after birth among infants with low birth weight are uncertain.

Randomized controlled trial of RTS,S/AS02D and RTS,S/AS01E malaria candidate vaccines given according to different schedules in Ghanaian children.

Background: The target delivery channel of RTS,S candidate malaria vaccines in malaria-endemic countries in Africa is the World Health Organisation Expanded Program on Immunization. As an Adjuvant System, age de-escalation and schedule selection step, this study assessed 3 schedules of RTS,S/AS01(E) and RTS,S/AS02(D) in infants and young children 5-17 months of age in Ghana.

Methodology: A Phase II, partially-blind randomized controlled study (blind to vaccine, not to schedule), of 19 months duration was conducted in two (2) centres in Ghana between August 2006 and May 2008.