Medical Healthcare Facilities Research Articles

GIS for Pandemic Zoning: Application of Brampton, Ontario, Canada

This paper examines the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) in mass casualty zoning for a pandemic in the city of Brampton, Ontario. Canadians in general are familiar with the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the effect that it had on medical care facilities, human resources, and national economy. In the year of 2009, Canadians were faced with another pandemic, the H1N1 influenza. These pandemics created widespread panic among many residents and the lessons learned is that health officials need to effectively plan for another outbreak. Focusing on Brampton as one of the western cities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in the Province of Ontario, Canada; where there is urbanization and concentration of population served by one main medical health facility, i.e., Brampton Civic Hospital. This research examined the capacity of current facility to deal with emergency surge. Specifically, where there is a need for large number of health care professionals to deal with emergency situations. The paper provides a model for emergency management professionals to utilize GIS as a decision-making tool in assessing the risks, tracking outbreaks, maintaining situational awareness, during pandemic outbreaks. It provides analysis of means and ways for minimizing disruptions which may occur in a community.

Dental care knowledge and practice of a group of health workers in benin city, Nigeria.

Background:The correlation between knowledge of dental care knowledge and its practice varies among the different health professionals.Aim:The aim of the following study is to assess the knowledge and practice of health workers in a private medical health facility on dental care.Subjects and Methods:A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on the health workers in Faith Medical Center, Benin City, Nigeria. A self-administered questionnaire, containing 31 open and closed questions was used for data collection to assess their knowledge and practice of dental care. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0 (Chicago, IL, USA) and WIN PEPI software version 11.15.Results:None of the respondents had a poor knowledge of dental care, but majority had poor practice. The pattern of distribution of knowledge and practice of dental care observed in this study was not significantly affected by age, gender, occupation and working experience. The entire respondents knew that bleeding from the gum is not normal and 96.2% (75/78) gave correct causes of bleeding gums. Majority 88.5% (69/78) also knew that tooth decay is not normal, but fewer 66.6% (52/78) knew the correct causes of tooth decay. Only 37.2% (29/75) of the respondents took correct action after experiencing a toothache (i.e., consulting a dentist for proper management) and majority 80.8% (63/78) and 76.1% (60/78) still make use of toothpicks, which is considered as potentially harmful and frequently consume cariogenic diet respectively.Conclusion:There is a good knowledge of dental care, but poor oral health practices among the studied health workers. Oral health education to correct their improper practices is therefore highly advocated.

“Epilepsy is pathognomonic of witchcraft”: parental perspectives on childhood epilepsy and their treatment choices in South West Uganda

Childhood epilepsy is a common, socially stigmatising and largely treatable disease. Despite this there remains a large treatment gap between the number of children with epilepsy and the number receiving appropriate anti-epileptic drug (AED) treatment. To understand reasons for the treatment gap, treatment methods and beliefs of carers were prospectively analysed for 18 children with epilepsy attending the paediatric neurology clinic at a government hospital in Uganda. The majority of carers (61%) believed that their child9s seizures had a supernatural explanation. Of these, 40% believed that their child had been bewitched or possessed by evil spirits and 50% believed that their child9s seizures were caused by “Ebihungu” (meaning “birds”). 83.3% of the children with epilepsy had used complementary therapists before attending a Western medical health facility. Of the respondents using complementary therapists, 73.3% used traditional healers alone, 6.7% used spiritual healers alone, and 20% had been treated by both. Traditional healers used herbal remedies, charms, rattles or scarification marks. The cost of visiting hospital was considerable, both in transport costs and time away from farming. Traditional healers incurred great cost in the purchasing of herbal remedies. The average duration of time before starting appropriate AEDs was less than one month for children who received no complementary therapy, and 22 months for children receiving treatment from traditional healers. The influence of the family9s social network on treatment seeking behaviours was considerable. 46% patients continued to use traditional medicine or spiritual healing whilst taking AEDs, suggesting many of the caregivers perceived some continuing benefit from these alternative treatments. The popularity of alternative practitioners in the treatment of epilepsy and their continued use when taking AEDs underlines the perceived usefulness of the treatments they offer. Programmes to decrease the treatment gap in childhood epilepsy would need to include close collaboration of Western medical practitioners with traditional healers, who could help identify and refer children with epilepsy, whilst continuing to play a supportive role in the community in a culturally sensitive way. This collaboration is important as neither Western medicine nor complementary therapists can satisfactorily manage the needs of the patient and their family alone.