Laboratory reference values for healthy adults from southern Tanzania.

Objectives: To define and discuss reference ranges for commonly determined laboratory parameters in healthy adults from southern Tanzania.

Methods: A population-based sample of adult volunteers from Mbeya, Tanzania, who were not HIV positive or showing signs and symptoms of other diseases, participated in this study. We enrolled 145 women and 156 men between 19 and 48 years of age to determine clinical chemistry (CC), haematology and lymphocyte immunophenotyping (LIP) parameters using standard laboratory methods.

Recognition of AIDS by health personnel in rural south-Rwanda.

The ability of rural health personnel to recognise AIDS related symptoms and signs according to the WHO clinical case definition (CCD) and its modified Rwandan version was tested in 4141 clinically suspected cases in South-Rwanda. The sensitivities of these CCDs for AIDS in adults were 33% (36%), the specificities 78% (76%), and the positive predictive values (ppv) 46%. For AIDS in children the sensitivities of the CCDs were 13% (16%), the specificities 94% (90%), and the ppv 44% (38%).

HIV-1 infection among malnourished children in Butare, Rwanda.

In order to investigate the relationship between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection and protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), all 101 malnourished children who were admitted to the Department of Pediatrics of the National University Hospital between February and July of 1989 (median age = 2.5 years), and who were accompanied by their mother were screened for HIV-1 antibody. Mothers were also screened and interviewed.