Research Articles

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A research article reports the results of original research, assesses its contribution to the body of knowledge in a given area, and is published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. The faculty publications through published and on-going articles/researches are captured in this community

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    Type-I HTLV antibody in urban and rural Ghana, West Africa.
    (International Journal of Cancer, 1984) Biggar, R.J.; Saxinger, C.; Gardiner, C.; Collins, W.E.; Levine, P.H.; Clark, J.W.; Nkrumah, F.K.; Blattner, W.A.
    The prevalence of antibodies against the newly described human T-cell lymphoma virus, type I (HTLV-I) in two communities in Ghana, West Africa, is described. There was no difference by community (urban, 3.6% and rural, 4.0%). Prevalence increased with age, being 5.9% among persons greater than 10 years old, but did not differ by sex. There was no difference when data were analysed by housing status or crowding. Non-confirmed reactions in the assay system were frequent and correlated with both prevalence and titer of antibody against malaria. Possible explanations include vector-borne transmission like that of malaria, but the relationship is more probably due to a polyclonal stimulation of B cells, enhancing the potential for detecting reactivity in the assay. Because assay systems vary and because most laboratories do not routinely use a confirmation assay, results presented by different groups must be interpreted cautiously.
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    Impact of primary health care on child morbidity and mortality in rural Ghana: The Gomoa experience [corrected].
    (1995) Afari, E.A.; Nkrumah, F.K.; Nakana, T.; Sakatoku, H.; Hori, H.; Binka, F.
    The impact of a combination of PHC intervention activities on child survival, growth, morbidity and mortality was assessed in three selected rural communities (Gomoa Fetteh, Gomoa Onyadze/Otsew Jukwa and Gomoa Mprumem) in the Central Region of Ghana from 1987 to 1990. EPI, provision of basic essential drugs and supplies for the treatment of common childhood diseases, treatment of the sick child, growth monitoring, health education, provision of antenatal services, family planning, training and supervision of Community Health Workers, disease surveillance and special studies were the major PHC strategies used to improve the health of the child and the pregnant woman in the three communities. These activities in their totality have had significant impact on morbidity and mortality in children under five and on maternal mortality in children under five and on maternal mortality over the study period 1987 to 1990. Although malaria, acute respiratory infections and diarrhoea diseases continue to be major causes of childhood morbidity, deaths due to these diseases have dramatically declined. Measles and other vaccine preventable diseases no longer contribute significantly to childhood morbidity and mortality. Infant and under five mortality have been reduced from 114.6/1000 and 155.6/1000 live births to 40.8/1000 and 61.2/1000 live births respectively. The crude birth rates however, remain almost the same over the five year period (43 to 48/1000 pop.) but crude death rates have declined (11 to 12.4/1000 pop.).
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    Surface marker patterns of T cells and expression of interleukin-2 receptor in measles infection
    (Acta Paediatrica Japonica, 1998) Addae, M.M.; Komada, Y.; Taniguchi, K.; Kamiya, T.; Osei-Kwasi, M.; Akanmori, B.D.; Nkrumah, F.K.
    The surface marker patterns of T cells of Ghanaian children during measles infection were studied and an attempt was made to demonstrate T cell activation and viability in vitro after activation in vivo by measles virus. The frequencies of CD4+ and CD8+ naive T cells in measles patients were high while their memory T cells were remarkably reduced with no sign of proliferation even at the acute phase of the illness. The reduction of memory T cells was prolonged during the convalescent phase (2 months after onset). The anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody-induced expression of interleukin-2 receptor alpha chain (IL-2R/CD25) was significantly suppressed; however, the addition of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate or ionomycin caused a remarkable recovery of CD25 expression. On simple culture, an appreciable proportion of T cells from measles patients died rapidly in contrast with only a few T cells from healthy controls doing so. The suppression of CD25 expression was still demonstrated during the convalescent phase of the disease. Taken together these results suggest unresponsiveness and activation-induced cell death of T cells during severe measles infection in Ghanaian children. Furthermore the prolonged abnormalities of T cells (i.e. decreased memory T cells and inhibition of CD25 expression during the convalescent phase) might be related to post-measles infection immunosuppressive status.