HIV is a public health emergency in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 1 out of 20 adults affected by the disease. In Mozambique, where HIV figures are in line with those in the broader Sub-Saharan region, the causes of HIV/AIDS related-death include emergency surgery and post-operative infections. This study reviews the existing literature on surgically-treated diseases in [...]
Aplasia cutis congenita (ACC) is a rare disease characterized by the congenital absence of skin layers. While most commonly seen on the scalp, the disease can affect other parts of the body as well. Because safe, effective treatment for ACC has not yet been identified, managing the disease in newborns continues to be problematic. Moreover, surgery [...]
It is not only infectious diseases that are lethal for the African continent; today, diabetes mellitus (DM), too, is threatening communities. A chronic disease caused by defects in insulin secretion, action or both, DM seems to have a severe impact on people suffering from tuberculosis (TB), with dire consequences in terms of the mortality rate [...]
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection known. It spreads easily because individuals who contract the virus often have no symptoms and are therefore unaware that they are infected. Although HPV infection is frequently asymptomatic and transitory, it can persist and cause lesions including warts, condylomas and cancers depending on the risk [...]
The 2014–2015 Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic ha colpito duramente il West Africa, soprattutto Guinea, Sierra Leone e Liberia, with a total of 28,220 reported cases and 11,291 reported deaths (WHO, September 2015). Starting in July 2014, Doctors with Africa CUAMM worked to combat Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone’s Pujehun District, where it has been [...]
The Ebola epidemic that has ravaged West Africa – Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone in particular – since 2014 had led to more than 28,000 reported cases by October 2015, with implications not only for the health of communities involved, but also in terms of its impact on the region’s economies and overall development and [...]
Diagnostic laboratory tests have always had the disadvantage of being too expensive for use in countries with limited resources. There is now growing interest in a new form of lab tests that go by the name “point of care testing” (POCT). POCT enables non-specialized health care personnel to carry out chemical analyses and immunology and [...]
Laboratory medicine plays a fundamental role in ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of health care systems and making possible timely diagnoses and operations. However, in the Sub-Saharan African region it is frequently of poor quality, due in part to insufficient economic resources, in part to a lack of personnel trained in using technical diagnostic tools, [...]
The increase in treatments for people affected by HIV virus has led to a global reduction of new childhood infections. Nonetheless, particularly in settings with limited resources, the level of emergency is still high, despite the efforts to expand access to combined antiretroviral therapy (cART), One of the main causes of the still high percentage [...]