Background: Thalassemia is an autosomal recessive disease common in Iraq with a prevalence of 35.7 per 100000. Beta thalassemia major is a life-threatening condition with many complications which if not managed could cause death at an early age. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the awareness of parents/caregivers of children with beta-thalassemia major and intermedia, as enhancing awareness is the first and the most important step in all prevention programs Methods: We conducted this study in three thalassemia centers (two in Baghdad and one in Al-Nasiriyah) from July 20th, 2017 to September 20th, 2017. This study involved 193 parents of thalassemic children under the age of 15 who come to the centers frequently for blood transfusion. The study assessed the awareness questionnaire through interviews. Data analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences program (SPSS) version 24. Results: We found that awareness was low in many aspects. The highest knowledge was for foods that thalassemic patients shouldn't eat and for the early manifestation signs in thalassemic patients which is 94.8% and 86%, respectively. The lowest knowledge was for the consideration of human immune deficiency virus as a transfusion-transmitted disease and for the chance of having an affected child when both parents are carriers which were 37.3% and 11.9%, respectively. Conclusion: Parents have low awareness of thalassemia in many aspects. Thalassemia care centers may need to provide more education for the parents of patients with thalassemia.
Thalassemia is an autosomal recessive disease that is common in Iraq with a prevalence of 35.7 per 100,000. It is the most common type of hereditary anemia registered in 2015. It is a life-threatening condition with many complications which if not managed could cause death in early age. This study aimed to assess the awareness of Iraqi people about thalassemia transmission and prevention and to find their source of information about the disease, as developing good awareness is the first and the most advantageous road to establish a successful prevention program. This cross-sectional study involved 417 participants who were from medical and non-medical fields. It was conducted as an online survey in addition to participants interview using a self-structured questionnaire which was tested for content and face validity, unidimensionality and test-retest reliability in a pilot study of 40 participants. Each participant who had heard about the disease was given a score (0-5) based on their knowledge: 68.8% of the people had heard about the disease previously, those had a mean score of 3 out of 5; 84% claimed that thalassemia is a noncommunicable disease which resembles the highest awareness aspect. The lowest one was about the preventability of the disease. Significant correlation was found between the score of awareness and the age. People awareness about thalassemia was relatively good. A control strategy should be directed to elevate the awareness level about thalassemia in the community with the application of the national program for thalassemia control.
Background: Forensic medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with applying medical knowledge to establish facts in civil or criminal cases, such as investigations into the cause and time of death. In Iraq, people's knowledge about forensic doctors' profiles is unknown, so this study aims to assess the general population's knowledge regarding forensic doctors. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that involved 644 participants from different provinces in Iraq using a self-administered questionnaire published via social media websites. The survey involved questions about the sociodemographic status of participants and twelve questions about forensic doctor duties, which were listed in the Iraqi constitution. These were tested for internal consistency with an alpha Cronbach value of 0.82. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social science (SPSS) version 23. Results: The mean number of questions correctly answered was 7.35 with a standard deviation of 3, 9.5% of the sample answered all the questions correctly, 30.4% answered from 9 to 11 questions, 20.5% from 7 to 8, 28% from 4 to 6, 9.4% from 1 to 3 and 2.2% answered all questions wrongly. The highest awareness was about the duty of dissecting bodies, identifying the remnants' identity, and identifying the cause of death. The lowest awareness was about public morality issues as a duty of the forensic doctor. There was a statistically significant association between the number of correctly answered questions and gender, age, marital status, and education level. Conclusion This study shows moderate knowledge and awareness about forensic doctors among Iraq's general population.
Warts are common problem in the communities and caused by many types of human papilloma virus. There are many modalities of treatment in which none was shown to be perfect and only few were based on high-level clinical trials. Treatment should be individualized in practice depending on many factors like immunity status, age, number and sites of the warts, with generally being less costly and with no pain. Treatments can be traditional, destructive, virucidal, antimitotic and immunomodulatory. Salicylic acid being most widely used due to effectiveness and convenience with little side effects. Remission and recurrence can seem unpredictable for warts treatments.
Thalassemia is an inherited autosomal recessive hemoglobinopathy which has a prevalence of 35.7/100000 and incidence of 4.5 per 100000 in Iraq. The disease is totally preventable as many countries succeeded in accomplishing this. Many domains included in the prevention program ranging from education, carrier detection, molecular diagnosis, genetic counselling prenatal diagnosis and therapeutic abortion. The last option may find difficulties in its accomplishment in Arabic countries as it finds contradictions to some religious and tradition habits. In Iraq it does cause burden on health budget as a report from the federal board of supreme audit in 2016 revealed that the cost of management of each patient is 1428.00-3785.00 US$/month, this include blood transfusion, drugs and other treatment facilities. As this calculated for the life expectancy for thalassemic major patient and number of patients in Iraq, the pattern of Burden will be identified clearly. Comparing this pattern to that of single case prevention calculations may show the cost effectiveness of thalassemia prevention. The aim of this study is to assess the cost-effectiveness of applying a prevention program and the difference in expenditure between case prevention and management per year and to see the extent of applicability of the prevention program. Key words: Thalassemia, Prevention, Cost, applicability
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