Background: Sufficient vaccination coverage among children depends on parents’ knowledge and attitudes towards immunization and their intention to have their children vaccinated. The objective of the study was to evaluate postpartum mothers’ knowledge and attitudes towards children’s immunization. Methods: It was a cross-sectional survey. The anonymous questionnaire was handed out to postpartum mothers selected at random in the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kauno Klinikos from March to July of 2014. In total, 300 women were surveyed. Results: The majority (63%) of respondents had higher education. The child was the first one for 49.7% of the mothers. The women indicated that their main sources of information about children’s vaccination were the doctor, the Internet and mass media. Most respondents (87.3%) considered vaccine-preventable diseases to be dangerous but only 57.3% of them knew that vaccines provided efficient protection. Only 57% of the respondents considered vaccines to be safe but 75.3% thought that the benefits of vaccines were greater than the risks. We evaluated the knowledge as good in 36.3%, average in 41.3% and poor in 22.3% of mothers. Most of the respondents (81.3%) planned to immunize their child in the future with all the vaccines included in the national immunization program, however, 72.7% were worried about possible adverse events following vaccination. Of the mothers whose knowledge was evaluated as good, 74.8% had never refused or had doubts about having their child immunized (τ = −0.198, p < 0.001). The mothers with better knowledge were also less likely to be concerned (τ = 0.211, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Evaluation of postpartum mothers’ knowledge and attitudes towards children’s immunization could be the tool for better communication between health professionals and parents leading to increased vaccination rates.
Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is an infectious zoonotic disease that is caused by Echinococcus multilocularis. The disease is generally identified accidentally because of the long asymptomatic period, has a malignant behaviour, and mainly occurs in the liver. Usually it is diagnosed in adults and is very rare in pediatric patients. We report two cases of AE and 1 differential case between AE and cystic echinococcosis (CE) in children: two of them had lesions in the liver and one had rare extrahepatic presentation of a cyst in the spleen. All our patients received chemotherapy with albendazole because surgical treatment was not recommended. The children were followed-up from 10 to 30 months and no significant improvement was seen. In this report we discuss the difficulties we faced in the treatment and follow-up of these patients. We also review the main clinical manifestations, general diagnostic methods, and treatment options of AE according to the current literature.
Tyrimo tikslas – remiantis literatūros duomenimis, apžvelgti pagrindinių komplemento komponentų trūkumų, turinčių ryšį su N. meningitidis sukelta infekcija, priežastis ir ypatumus. Atlikta literatūros apžvalga, į kurią įtraukti 29 straipsniai, atrinkti iš PubMed duomenų bazės.
Tyrimo rezultatai ir išvados. Labiausiai meningokokinės infekcijos riziką didinantis veiksnys yra terminalinių komplemento komponentų (C5-C9) trūkumas, kurį gali sukelti genų mutacijos arba tam tikrų medikamentų vartojimas. Šie sutrikimai siejami su meningokokinės infekcijos pasireiškimu vyresniame nei įprastai amžiuje, didesne kartotinės infekcijos rizika, mažiau invaziškomis N. meningitidis serogrupėmis bei geresne ligos baigtimi. Properdino trūkumą turintiems asmenims meningokokinės infekcijos kartojasi retai, bet dažniau baigiasi mirtimi. Naujausių viso genomo tyrimų duomenimis, rastas stiprus, galimai apsauginis ryšys tarp meningokokinės infekcijos ir komplemento faktoriaus H genų polimorfizmų.
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