The present study aims to assess the different types of costs for treatment of snake bite patients, to quantify household economic impact and to understand the coping mechanisms required to cover the costs for snake bite patients in Bangladesh. The patients admitted to four tertiary level hospitals in Bangladesh were interviewed using structured questionnaires including health-care-related expenditures and the way in which the expenditures were covered. Of the snakes which bit the patients, 54.2% were non-venomous, 45.8% were venomous and 42.2% of the patients were given polyvalent antivenom. The total expenditure related to snake bite varies from US$4 (US$1 = Taka 72) to US$2294 with a mean of US$124 and the mean income loss was US$93. Expenditure for venomous snake bite was US$231, which is about seven times higher than non-venomous snake bite (US$34). The treatment imposes a major economic burden on affected families, especially in venomous snake bite cases.
A description is given of a case of a young girl who presented with repeated episodes of pneumonia since childhood. In addition, she had episodes of intermittent diarrhoea. Her investigative work-up revealed a deficiency of serum immunoglobulins. The profile was suggestive of common variable immunodeficiency. Because of a relative rarity of this disease, it is often misdiagnosed earlier. Late diagnosis and delayed institution of immunoglobulin replacement therapy results in increased morbidity with a wide variety of organ-specific complications and increased mortality. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjmed.v22i1.13597 Bangladesh J Medicine 2011; 22: 24-26
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.