Patients' satisfaction with dental care provided by public dental clinics in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Background: In Tanzania, patient satisfaction with dental services has received only minor attention.

Objective: To assess patients' satisfaction with public dental health services in Dar es Salaam.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Antifungal activity of some Tanzanian plants used traditionally for the treatment of fungal infections.

Using the ethnobotanical approach, some Tanzanian plants reported to be used by traditional healers for the treatment of oral candidiasis and fungal infections of the skin were collected and screened for their antifungal activity against Candida albicans, Candida glabrata, Candida tropicalis, Candida parapsilosis, Candida krusei and Cryptococcus neoformans. A total of 65 crude methanol extracts belonging to 56 plant species and 38 families were screened using the broth microdilution method, according to the guidelines of the Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) (formerly, National Committee for Clinical and Laboratory Standards) [National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards, 2002. Reference Method for Broth Dilution Antifungal Susceptibility Testing of Yeasts.

Epidemiology and management of maxillofacial fractures treated at Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 1998-2003.

Background: This study investigated the pattern, causes and management of maxillofacial fractures at the Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam.

Methods: The medical records and radiographs for patients treated for maxillofacial fractures over a 5-year period (1998-2003) were retrieved. Data on the patients' age, sex, cause and type of injury, treatment modality, and post-operative complications were reviewed.

HIV co-infection, CD4 cell counts and clinical correlates of bacillary density in pulmonary tuberculosis.

Background: Sputum microscopy for acid-fast bacilli (AFB) is the commonest diagnostic method for pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in developing countries. The method is reported to be less sensitive in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive compared to negative patients. We determined the bacillary density in sputum of smear-positive PTB patients and related it to the patients' HIV status, CD4 cell count, clinical and demographic characteristics.

Assessing prescribing and patient care indicators for children under five years old with malaria and other disease conditions in public primary health care facilities.

A prospective descriptive observational study using WHO indicator forms and questionnaire was carried out in Kibaha district public primary health care facilities. We assessed knowledge about drugs in mothers/guardians of sick children under age five years immediately after consulting clinicians and after receiving drugs from the dispenser. The questionnaires had closed- and open-ended questions.

Trends in obesity, underweight, and wasting among women attending prenatal clinics in urban Tanzania, 1995-2004.

Background: Many developing countries are currently burdened by both undernutrition and increasing rates of overweight and obesity. Scarce data are available from population studies on the recent trends and current epidemiology of obesity in African settings.

Objectives: The objectives were to evaluate changes in the prevalence of obesity, underweight, and wasting in women of reproductive age from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, during the past 10 y and to identify contemporary sociodemographic correlates of these indicators.

Evidence of a substantial decline in prevalence of HIV-1 infection among pregnant women: data from 1995 to 2003 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Objective: To determine the prevalence trends of HIV-1 infection among pregnant women seen between 1995 and 2003 at public antenatal clinics (ANC) in the city of Dar es Salaam.

Design And Settings: Cross-sectional studies among pregnant women at selected antenatal clinics who were offered HIV testing as part of research and service programmes to prevent vertical transmission of HIV infection and improve pregnancy outcomes.

Subjects And Methods: Consenting women gave blood for HIV antibody testing using a sequential ELISA protocol.

Eclampsia in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania -- incidence, outcome, and the role of antenatal care.

Background: In order to assess the effectiveness of antenatal care for prevention of eclampsia, a retrospective case-control study was performed at the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. All women with eclampsia seen at MNH during 1999-2000 and controls without eclampsia were included.

Methods: The study used a labor ward database and antenatal cards of eclamptic women and non-eclamptic controls.

Evaluation of HIV antibody and antigen/antibody combination ELISAs for use in an alternative confirmatory HIV testing strategy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of two antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) [Vironostika Uni-Form II plus O and Enzygnost anti-HIV-1/2 Plus], and two antigen/antibody combination ELISAs [Murex and Vironostika HIV Uni-Form II] for use in an alternative confirmatory HIV diagnostic testing strategy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Altogether, 1380 serum samples were included. All ELISA reactive samples were tested using the Inno-Lia antibody assay and discrepant samples were tested on the Innotest p24 antigen assay.

Are process indicators adequate to assess essential obstetric care at district level?--a case study from Rufiji district, Tanzania.

To assess coverage and quality of essential obstetric care (EOC) and the appropriateness of using processindicators, a 3-month follow-up study was done in Rufiji district, Tanzania, involving 2 hospitals, 4 health centres, 10 large dispensaries and 10 randomly selected small dispensaries. Data collection was done on process indicators as suggested by UNICEF/WHO/UNFPA (UN) and 'unmet obstetric need (UON) for major obstetric intervention (MOI)'. With standard values in (brackets), the district had two comprehensive EOC facilities, births in EOC amounted to 62% (15%), met need for EOC was 76% (100%), caesarean section (C/S) rate 4.

Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART): the Tanzanian experience.

Objectives: Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART), which involves the use of hand instruments, is a relatively inexpensive, non-sophisticated, tooth conservative technique that offers the opportunity for restorative work in remote areas without electricity. The objectives of this survey were to evaluate the experience of dental practitioners with ART and the impact of the technique on oral health care in Tanzania, where ART was pioneered.

Methods: Dental officers (DOs), assistant dental officers (ADOs) and dental therapists (DTs) from different parts of the Tanzania mainland participated in a cross-sectional study that gathered information using a self-administered structured questionnaire.

Storage of antimalarials at household level and associated factors in Kiromo ward, Bagamoyo Tanzania.

Background: Malaria is a highly debilitating and frequently fatal disease of wide distribution. Improper drug storage and rampant self-medication are some of the factors that may contribute to an increase in the development of drug resistance by malaria parasites towards antimalarials.

Objectives: To determine the extent of antimalarial drugs storage, sources and associated factors at household level at Kiromo ward in Bagamoyo, Coast region, Tanzania after the introduction of SP replacing chloroquine as first line.

Mob justice in Tanzania: a medico-social problem.

Objective: To investigate the magnitude of mob justice and associated factors.

Background: Mob justice is a social and public health problem that has grown in Tanzania in recent decades that has negative effects on social and health of the country, communities, and families.

Materials And Methods: A four-year autopsy study was conducted at the Department of Pathology, MUCHS.

Existence of antimalarial formulations with low bioavailability in Tanzania.

The main objective of this work was to assess the relative bioavailability of two tablet formulations containing sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine (SP) and marketed in Tanzania. Twelve healthy volunteers were randomized to receive a single oral dose of three SP tablets each containing 500 mg sulfadoxine (SDX) and 25 mg pyrimethamine (PYR) in a form of either A (a locally manufactured SP tablet formulation, manufactured by a local pharmaceutical industry in Tanzania) or B (Fansidar), Hoffmann La Roche, Basel, Switzerland, an innovator's SP) after an overnight fasting. Serial blood samples (100 microL) were collected from a finger prick in duplicate up to 10 days and dried on Whatman filter paper.

Screening of Tanzanian medicinal plants for anti-Candida activity.

Background: Candida albicans has become resistant to the already limited, toxic and expensive anti-Candida agents available in the market. These factors necessitate the search for new anti-fungal agents.

Methods: Sixty-three plant extracts, from 56 Tanzanian plant species obtained through the literature and interviews with traditional healers, were evaluated for anti-Candida activity.

Antiparasitic activity of some xanthones and biflavonoids from the root bark of Garcinia livingstonei.

A new biflavanoid, ent-naringeninyl-(I-3alpha,II-8)-4'-O-methylnaringenin (6), along with five known xanthones and two known biflavonoids, was isolated from the root bark of Garcinia livingstonei collected in Tanzania. The absolute configuration of 6 was established by CD spectroscopy. This compound showed moderate activity against P.

Dietary habits, plasma polyunsaturated fatty acids and selected coronary disease risk factors in Tanzania.

Objectives: To compare dietary habits and percent compositions of omega (omega)-3 fatty acid (FA) in plasma phospholipids and to examine if there is any association between fish intake and selected coronary disease risk (CHD) factors in this population.

Design: Cross sectional population study.

Setting: Three areas in Tanzania: urban Dar es Salaam (D), rural Handeni (H) and pastoralist population of Maasai in Moduli (Mo).

Medicinal plants used by Tanzanian traditional healers in the management of Candida infections.

An ethnomedical survey in Coast, Dar es Salaam, Morogoro and Tanga regions of Tanzania has resulted in the identification of 36 plant species belonging to 21 plant families that are used traditionally for the treatment of Candida infections. Twenty-one plants constituting 58.3% of all collected plants are used to treat of oral candidiasis (Utando) one of the important signs of HIV/AIDS.

Knowledge on gingivitis and oral hygiene practices among secondary school adolescents in rural and urban Morogoro, Tanzania.

Objectives: To assess and compare knowledge on gingivitis and oral hygiene practices among rural and urban secondary school students.

Design: A cross-section descriptive study involving secondary school students aged between 13 and 17 years in Morogoro rural and urban districts.

Methods: Questionnaire was used to collect information about knowledge on causes, signs, symptoms, complications, treatment modalities and prevention of gingivitis, as well as on oral hygiene practices.

Tooth loss among habitual chewing-stick and plastic toothbrush users in the adult population of Mtwara, rural Tanzania.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the extent and type of tooth loss in relation to habitual chewing-stick (CS) and plastic toothbrush (PT) users in adults.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in Mtwara's rural population aged >or=40 years. A total of 206 randomly selected study participants - males (55.

Seroprevalence of human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B and C viruses and syphilis infections among blood donors at the Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Background: According to the latest Tanzanian National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) report a total of 147,271 individuals donated blood during the year 2002. However, blood safety remains an issue of major concern in transfusion medicine in Tanzania where national blood transfusion services and policies, appropriate infrastructure, trained personnel and financial resources are inadequate. Most of the donated blood is screened for HIV alone.

Reconstruction of the mandible after ablative surgery for the treatment of aggressive, benign odontogenic tumours in Tanzania: a preliminary study.

This study presents results on 11 patients suffering from ameloblastoma who had ablative surgery followed by reconstruction of the mandible in a single operative procedure in Tanzania. The procedure included the use of autogenous particulate bone from the anterior or posterior iliac crest. In 6 of the patients, the tumour was removed from the cortical scaffold, which was then irradiated with 50 Gy.

Emergency pulpotomy in relieving acute dental pain among Tanzanian patients.

Background: In Tanzania, oral health services are mostly in the form of dental extractions aimed at alleviating acute dental pain. Conservative methods of alleviating acute dental pain are virtually non-existent. Therefore, it was the aim of this study to determine treatment success of emergency pulpotomy in relieving acute dental pain.

How sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) was perceived in some rural communities after phasing out chloroquine (CQ) as a first-line drug for uncomplicated malaria in Tanzania: lessons to learn towards moving from monotherapy to fixed combination therapy.

Malaria is a leading cause of death in Sub-Saharan Africa. Tanzania changed its malaria treatment policy from chloroquine (CQ) to Sulphadoxine-Pyrimethamine (SP) as first line drug in August 2001. We wanted to assess the perception and behaviour about SP after phasing out chloroquine which was very popular, cheap, available, and was preferred by many people for self-medication in homes as it was considered to have minimal side effects.