Patients in the intensive care unit require fast and efficient handling, including in-diagnosis service. The objectives of this study are to produce a computer-aided system so that it can help radiologists to classify the types of brain tumors suffered by patients quickly and accurately; to build applications that can determine the location of brain tumors from CT scan images; and to get the results of the analysis of the system design. The combination of the zoning algorithm with Learning Vector Quantization can increase the speed of computing and can classify normal and abnormal brains with an average accuracy of 85%.

Intermittent presumptive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) of malaria using sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) was introduced in Nigeria in 2005 to reduce the burden of malaria in pregnancy. By 2013, 23% of reproductive aged women surveyed received SP for malaria prevention in their last pregnancy of the past 5 years. This paper highlights geographic and socio-economic variations and inequities in accessing and using SP for malaria prophylaxis in pregnancy in Nigeria, as well as client-related and service delivery determinants.

Secondary data from 2013 Nigeria demographic and health survey (DHS) was used. Sample of 38,948 eligible women were selected for interview using stratified three-stage cluster design. Data obtained from the individual recode dataset was used for descriptive and logistic regression analysis of factors associated with SP use in pregnancy was performed. Independent variables were age, media exposure, region, place of residence, wealth index, place of antenatal care (ANC) attendance and number scale-up IPTp of malaria.

The report from the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals that health spending worldwide remains highly unequal as more than 80% of the world’s population live in low and middle-income countries but only account for about 20% of global health expenditure. Another report by the WHO on the state of health financing in Africa published in 2013 intimates that countries that are part of their member states are still on the average level in meeting set goals in financing key health projects.

The study set out to investigate the association between public and private spending and health status for eight selected African countries, namely Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. selleck chemicals Health status indicators include the incidence of tuberculosis, mortality rates, maternal deaths and prevalence of HIV.

Descriptive statistics and pairwise correlation are used to assess the relationship between healthcare spending and health status. Random and fixed effect models are further employed to re in order to improve health status, especially since private healthcare which provides access to healthcare facilities for some poor people leads to costs that are a burden. So, future research should focus on analyzing components of private healthcare spending such as direct household out-of-pocket spending, private insurance and direct service payments by private corporations as dependent variables to understand what form of private investment should be encouraged.

While health providers consistently use malaria rapid diagnostic tests to rule out malaria, they often lack tools to guide treatment for those febrile patients who test negative. Without the tools to provide an alternative diagnosis, providers may prescribe unnecessary antibiotics or miss a more serious condition, potentially contributing to antibiotic resistance and/or poor patient outcomes.

This study ascertained which diagnoses and treatments might be associated with poor outcomes in adults who test negative for malaria. Adult patients for rapid diagnostic test of malaria seen in mobile health clinics in Mulanje and Phalombe districts were followed for 14 days. Participants were interviewed on sociodemographic characteristics, health-seeking behaviour, diagnosis, treatment and access to care. Mobile clinic medical charts were reviewed. Two weeks (±2 days) following clinic visit, follow-up interviews were conducted to assess whether symptoms had resolved.

Initially, 115 adult patients were enrolled anided appropriate treatment, challenges remain when a patient’s presenting complaint is less well defined. In rural areas of southern Malawi, simple diagnostics are needed to guide treatment decisions.

Globally, the burden of interpersonal violence and its significant impact on mortality, morbidity and disability makes it a major public health problem which necessitates intervention. This article examines characteristics of victims of interpersonal violence and violent events in Malawi. The focus is on a population that has been traditionally neglected in literature.

Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) maintains a trauma registry with data that is prospectively collected. Patients offered trauma care after interpersonal violence from May 2013 to May 2015 were evaluated.

There were 1431 patients with violent events recorded at the Adult Emergency Trauma Centre (AETC) with a male predominance of 79.5%. The dominant age group was young adults between 25-29 years old (22%). Most attacks occurred during cold and dry season (46.9%) and most common location was on the road (37.2%). Alcohol use by victims was recorded in 10.5% of cases. Soft tissue injuries were the most common injuries sustained (74.1%).ion of injury and seasonal variation were significant factors associated with interpersonal violence and most commonly sustained injuries were soft tissue injuries. These findings will help in identifying targeted interventions for interpersonal violence in Malawi and other low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs).

Globally, critical illness causes up to 45 million deaths every year. The burden is highest in low-income countries such as Malawi. Critically ill patients require good quality, essential care in emergency departments and in hospital wards to avoid negative outcomes such as death. Little is known about the quality of care or the availability of necessary resources for emergency and critical care in Malawi. The aim of this study was to assess the availability of resources for emergency and critical care in Malawi using data from the Service Provision Assessment (SPA).

We conducted a secondary data analysis of the SPA – a nationwide survey of all health facilities. We assessed the availability of resources for emergency and critical care using previously developed standards for hospitals in low-income countries. Each health facility received an availability score, calculated as the proportion of resources that were present. Resource availability was sub-divided into the seven a-priori defined categories of drugs, equipment, support services, emergency guidelines, infrastructure, training and routines.