Epidemiology of injury patients at Bugando Medical Centre, Tanzania.

Objective: To describe the epidemiologic characteristics of injury cases at Bugando Medical Centre.

Setting: Bugando Medical Centre, Mwanza, Tanzania.

Data Sources: Records, registries and case notes in the surgical wards and clinic, casualty, medical record department, radiology and theatre from January 1995 to December 1997.

Improved injection practices after the introduction of treatment and sterility guidelines in Tanzania.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of introduction of treatment and sterilization guidelines on the number of avoidable injections and on the sterility of needles and syringes.

Methods: In 1991, 66 randomly selected health units in Mwanza Region, Tanzania, were visited and factors were determined that might contribute to HIV transmission by injections. In a workshop with all senior health workers from the region, findings were presented and treatment and sterilization guidelines developed.

Sexual transmission of hepatitis B in Mwanza, Tanzania.

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is endemic and poses a grave public health problem in Africa where it is mainly transmitted from mother to baby or during childhood. Sexual transmission has also been suggested to play a role in East Africa, but this has never been properly demonstrated. Additional preventive strategies may be proposed if sexual transmission of HBV occurred in this region where HIV and other STDs are highly prevalent.

Occupational exposure to the risk of HIV infection among health care workers in Mwanza Region, United Republic of Tanzania.

During 1993, we collected data on knowledge of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission, availability of equipment, protective practices and the occurrence of prick and splash incidents in nine hospitals in the Mwanza Region in the north-west of the United Republic of Tanzania. Such incidents were common, with the average health worker being pricked five times and being splashed nine times per year. The annual occupational risk of HIV transmission was estimated at 0.

Injection practices in Mwanza Region, Tanzania: prescriptions, patient demand and sterility.

This paper describes prescription and sterilization practices in Mwanza Region, Tanzania, before the introduction of interventions aiming at reducing HIV transmission by injections. Sixty-six health facilities from Mwanza Region were included in the study. Data were collected in interviews and questionnaires, through structured observation, bacteriological culture and record analysis.