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Alliances for Global Health Education: Learning from South/South Collaborations
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Presented by: |
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19th Annual
GHEC Conference
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Call for Abstracts: Poster Presentations
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in conjunction with:
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Submission Deadline: November 8, 2009
(Deadline extended from November 1)
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1st Latin American & Caribbean
Conference on Global Health |
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> Haga click aqui para ver la pagina in espanol.
La traducion esta hecha por Yahoo! Babel Fish.
Examples - Final Format:
• Write abstract in the 3rd Person
• 250 words maximum
• Abstracts for submission must be written in English.
Andrew Merritt
• Mountain Sickness Knowledge Among Foreign Travelers in Cuzco, Peru •
BACKGROUND: The unique location of Cuzco, Peru, causes most foreign travelers to arrive via air travel at its altitude of 3400 meters directly from sea level. The high elevation and lack of acclimation time results in a high prevalence of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). AMS can lead to serious and potentially fatal sequelae and thus knowledge of AMS is required to travel comfortably and safely in Cuzco. METHODS: One hundred foreign travelers, representing an international population, completed a 45 item written questionnaire that was subsequently analyzed. RESULTS: While the majority of travelers (91%) were aware of and received pre-travel vaccinations, over half of the respondents (51%) rated their knowledge of AMS as low or none. Furthermore, very few respondents (9%) knew about acetazolamide (DIAMOX) as a prophylactic and even fewer (4%) knew that it could be used to relieve symptoms of AMS. Respondents who were informed about AMS from their physician at the time they received travel vaccinations were more likely to know about prophylaxis (p=0.044) and treatment (p=0.026). Finally, people on tour groups were more likely to know that it was unsafe to climb to a higher altitude with symptoms of AMS (p=0.030), but they were also far more likely to feel that their itinerary did not allow flexibility in the event of illness (p=0.0005). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this survey revealed a general lack of AMS knowledge among foreign travelers in Cuzco. Possible avenues of education need to be better utilized to increase the knowledge of AMS among travelers.
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Lisa Giulino, Catherine A. McGuinn
• The Association Between Malaria and HIV Infection in Children: A Review & Retrospective Study •
HIV and malaria are two of the most common infectious illnesses in sub-Saharan Africa and the cause of significant morbidity and mortality, especially in the pediatric population. Although the correlates of protection from malaria are poorly understood, HIV-induced immune suppression could influence anti-malarial immune responses and increase susceptibility to malaria. Malaria infection in turn can up-regulate HIV replication through mechanisms of immune activation. The clinical relevance of these effects remains controversial. The strongest association between HIV and malaria has been observed in pregnancy. HIV-positive pregnant women are at higher risk for malaria. Studies in non-pregnant adults have yielded conflicting results. Older reports did not show an association. However, more recent data suggests that HIV disease may increase the risk of clinical malaria and the level of parasitemia. The frequency of malaria episodes is highest in the pediatric population, but few studies have explored the relationship between malaria and HIV in children. In this study, recent literature on the interaction between HIV and malaria in children are reviewed, and the results of a retrospective study of malaria incidence in a large cohort of HIV infected children in Mombasa, Kenya, are presented. The analysis did not identify a statistically significant link between malaria infection and HIV disease status, although there was a trend towards higher frequency of malarial episodes in children with advanced HIV disease. The limitations of this study are discussed and suggestions for future study designs to better investigate these interactions are offered.
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