Ensuring practical help for mothers and advice on managing common behavior problems are important components of intervention, as they may directly help to relieve stress on mothers of young disabled children in developing countries.

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Background: Liver biopsy is an established procedure to diagnose disease, to assessprognosis and to follow up of liver diseases. Although liver biopsy is a confirmatory diagnosticprocedure of majority of the hepatological disorders, it carries the risk of complications.Though major complications rarely occur, minor complications are common. To minimizecomplications, several biopsy techniques have been developed. The present study wasintended to correlate the clinical diagnoses with histological diagnoses and to observethe complications encountered by the children with percutaneous liver biopsy procedure.Patients and Methods: A total of 30 paediatric patients of suspected liver diseases,based on predefined eligibility criteria, were subjected to biopsy for confirmation ofdiagnosis. An ultrasound of liver was routinely performed before the procedure to markthe site for percutaneous biopsy. The field was prepared with alcohol-based solution(povidone-iodine) and sterile drapes were placed over the patient. Local anaestheticwas administered with 2% lidocain solution 20mg/ml (preferably levobupivacaine 2.5mg/ml) in both superficial and deep planes. A blind liver biopsy was done at the point ofmaximum dullness by percussion over the right trunk. We used cutting needle. Thediameter of the needle used in our study was 14-gauge (1.4 mm) which allowed adequatecollection of tissue for diagnosis. The biopsy material was taken in a very small amountof sterile normal saline and was immediately sent to the laboratory for evaluation.Results: Half (50%) of the patients was more than 5 years of age with median agebeing 5.0±3.9 years. Majority (80%) was male. Ninety percent of the patients belongedto poor socioeconomic class. Clinically the cases were diagnosed as having chronichepatitis (23.3%) followed by CLD (16.7%), isolated hepatomegaly (16.7%), livercirrhosis (13.3%) and storage disease (13.3%). Hepatosplenomegaly and congenitalhepatic fibrosis, each was 6.7%. Histological diagnoses of biopsy material obtainedfrom the liver confirmed that one-sixth (16.7%) of the cases had liver cirrhosis. Storagedisease and glycogen storage disease each comprised 13.3% of the cases andcongenital biliary atresia 10%. Very few cases had moderate fatty changes withcholestasis, congenital hepatic fibrosis, chronic inflammatory cells, chronic viralhepatitis and secondary biliary cirrhosis. Nearly half (46.7%) patients had mild painand discomfort at the site of biopsy, most of which spontaneously went away. However,some 3 (10%) patients developed major complications needing management.Conclusion: Liver biopsy is a well established procedure in the diagnosis and follow upof liver diseases. But it is not without risk of complications. So, before deciding for aliver biopsy, the indications and risks must be assessed cautiously for each patient.Key words: Percutaneous liver biopsy; clinical diagnoses; histological diagnoses; complications.DOI: 10.3329/bjch.v34i1.5694Bangladesh Journal of Child Health 2010; Vol.34(1): 1-6

Background: Azithromycin sensitivity cannot precisely identify the strains of typhoid and paratyphoid fever for successful treatment. Most of the studies show that azithromycin is highly effective in uncomplicated typhoid fever. Very few studies have been carried out in Bangladesh to see the effectiveness and sensitivity of azithromycin in children with uncomplicated typhoid fever. Objective: To assess the clinical response of azithromycin in uncomplicated typhoid fever. Materials and Methods: This randomized clinical trial was conducted in Dhaka Shishu (children) Hospital from January to December 2009. Children between 2–12 years of age with characteristic clinical presentation of uncomplicated typhoid fever with positive blood culture for S. typhi or S. paratyphi were included in this study. Patients were treated with oral azithromycin 20 mg/kg/day for 7 days in one group and intravenous ceftriaxone 100 mg/kg/day in another group. Effectiveness and sensitivity pattern were documented and compared. Results: Fifty patients were allocated randomly with azithromycin and 48 with ceftriaxone. Twenty two percent of the subjects were below 5 years and 78% above 5 years. Average time of defervescence was 4.44 ± 1.25 days in azithromycin group and 4.38 ± 1.21 days in ceftriaxone group. Response to treatment in both groups was excellent: 94% in azithromycin and 97.9% in ceftriaxone groups. The occurrence of complication was very low in both groups. Eighteen percent showed resistance to azithromycin and 2.1% to ceftriaxone. In azithromycin sensitive group 97.6% showed improvement and in resistant group 77.8% showed improvement. A good percentage of patients who were resistant to azithromycin showed clinical improvement following treatment with this drug. Conclusion: Current study recommends that azithromycin is effective in the treatment of enteric fever in children. The study also shows that some patients resistant to azithromycin showed clinical improvement following treatment with azithromycin. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jemc.v5i1.21495 J Enam Med Col 2015; 5(1): 34-38

Objective: To examine the risk factors associated with impairments and disabilities in children in Bangladesh.Methods: A two-stage methodology for identifying children with disabilities was employed in the Kishoreganj district of Bangladesh in 2001-2002. Ordered and generalized logit regressions were used to examine the correlation of childhood impairment and disability with a number of potential risk factors.Results: Children with consanguineous parents were 43.5% more likely to have an impairment; and poor children were 23.1% more likely. Maternal education reduced the chances of impairments developing into disabilities by 35%. Differences in risk factors existed between mild and severe disabilities. For example, boys were 66% more likely to have mild disabilities but not severe ones.Conclusions: Consanguinity and poverty are major factors associated with impairments, but maternal education might be an important tool towards limiting the probability of those impairments progressing to disabilities. Evidence also suggests that the causes of severe disabilities are significantly different from those causing mild disabilities.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjch.v35i2.10353  Bangladesh J Child Health 2011; VOL 35 (2): 41-48

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjch.v36i1.13035Bangladesh J Child Health 2012; Vol 36 (1): 36-45

Background To delineate the clinico-epidemiological characteristics of pediatric coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients was the objective of the study. Method: This observational study included 290 pediatric patients with a definite diagnosis of COVID-19 admitted to Dhaka Shishu Hospital, Bangladesh, from April 2021 to October 2021. Clinical and epidemiological characteristics were analyzed based on demographic data, medical history, laboratory tests, and outcome information. Data analysis was performed with SPSS 26. Ethical measures were taken in compliance with the current declaration of Helsinki, and final analysis was performed using SPSS 26. Result Of all, 42 (14.5%) were neonates (< 28 days), 88 (30.3%) were infants (28 days to < 1 year) and 160 (55.2%) were children (1–17 years). The median age of the children was 18 (0.3–204) months, 58.3% were male, 62% had malnutrition, and presented with various clinical presentations. The main symptoms were fever (5.7%) and breathlessness (20%). Approximately 22% of children were asymptomatic, and 57% had at least one comorbidity. Fever and abdominal pain were predominant presenting symptoms in children compared with neonates and infants (p < .01 for both), while cough and breathlessness were more frequent in infants (p < .01 for both). The infants suffered significantly from neutropenia and lymphocytosis than neonates and children (p < .001 for both). The discharge and death rates were 77.8% with 6.9%. Overall case fatality was higher among neonates than others. Conclusion Compared to other pediatric groups, neonatal case fatality was higher, and COVID-19 in neonates, infants, and children has similar epidemiological and clinical manifestations. The findings from this study might help to guide the development of measures to prevent and treat this ongoing global pandemic of these particular age groups.