The Arabic self-reporting questionnaire (SRQ) as a psychiatric screening instrument in medical patients

BACKGROUND

The self-reporting questionnaire was originally developed by the WHO in order to screen for psychiatic disorders. To assess the validity of the Arabic self-reporting questionnaire (SRQ) as a screening instrument for psychiatric morbidity in a sample of Saudi medical patients.

METHODS

All patients referred for endoscopy underwent a semi-structured interview, and were then asked to fill out the SRQ. One hundred and sixty-six males and 126 females were included in the study.

RESULTS

Sixty percent of the subjects were identified by the SRQ as psychiatric cases, compared to 48.6% identified using the psychiatric interview. A cut-off point between six and seven, was found to yield a sensitivity of 93%, a specificity of 70%, and a misclassification rate of 19%. Females had more psychiatric morbidity than males.

CONCLUSION

The validity indices and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis support the usefulness of the SRQ as a cost-effective screening instrument for psychiatric morbidity in a two-stage large population research.

Susceptibility pattern of uropathogenic gram negative bacilli to antimicrobial chemotherapeutic agents in a National Hospital in Dar es Salaam

In a period of two months, 232 consecutive urinary tract pathogens were isolated from hospitalised and non-hospitalised patients. Among the isolates, 200 (86.2%) were gram negative bacilli, including E. coli 109 (54.5%), Klebsiella species, 44 (22.5%), Enterobacter species 19 (9.5%), Proteus species 18 (9%), Morganella morganii 9 (4.5%) and Salmonella typhimurium, one (0.5%). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing to amoxycillin/clavulanic acid, nitrofurantoin, gentamicin and cefuroxime was performed using Stoke's method. Among the 109 E. coli isolates, 107 (98.2%), 104 (94.5%), 105(95.5% and 107 (98.2%) were sensitive to amoxycillin/clavulanic acid, cefuroxime, nitrofurantoin and gentamicin, respectively. Of the 44 Klebsiella isolates, 42 (95.5%), 41 (95.5%), 40 (90.9%) and 34 (77.3%) were sensitive to amoxycillin/clavulanic acid, cefuroxime, nitrofurantoin and gentamicin, respectively. There was no significant difference when the suceptibility patterns of isolates from hospitalised patients were compared to those from outpatients. Although the susceptibility pattern of urinary tract pathogens to the commonly used antimicrobial agents in the hospital is still favourable, there is a need to establish strategies to prevent emergence of resistant bacterial strains.

Rotavirus isolation and cultivation in the presence of trypsin

Rotaviruses are generally difficult to isolate and culture in vitro; therefore, virus isolation has not been used as a method of diagnosing this group of agents. The present report describes a simple procedure for isolating bovine rotaviruses directly from feces after pretreatment of fecal samples with trypsin. This procedure resulted in virus isolation from five of five samples that contained virus particles, as demonstrated by electron microscopy, and four of seven samples where virus particles could not be observed but were considered positive by the presence of immunofluorescent-staining cells in feces. Virus could not be isolated from "normal" feces. If the virus was not passaged in the presence of trypsin, the infectivity was gradually lost, but infectivity could be restored again if trypsin was added, resulting in increased virus spread and concomitant increase in virus yield. The application of this technique as a diagnostic tool for bovine and other rotaviruses is briefly discussed.

An epidemiological assessment of the residual effect of DDT on Anopheles hyrcanus sensulato and A. pulcherrimus (Theobold) in the North eastern region of Afghanistan

In the irrigated zones of North-eastern region of Afghanistan malaria transmission is sustained by A. pulcherrimus and A. hyrcanus despite many years of DDT spraying. A. hyrcanus is an exophilic and exophagic mosquito, strongly resistant to DDT. A. pulcherrimus is still largely susceptible to the insecticide but seems to be deterred from entering houses when these are sprayed with DDT. Entomological and parasitological studies in an area of the province of Kunduz where DDT has not been applied for 2 consecutive years have clearly indicated that the insecticide still plays an important role in reducing malaria transmission in the area though, as expected, it cannot interrupt transmission. A deterioration of the epidemiological situation in the area can be expected if the insecticide is withdrawn. The technical problems now existing in the irrigated zones of the North-eastern region of Afghanistan cannot be solved by routine attack measures. Malaria in the area can be eradicated only with the introduction of new attack measures which are very expensive and for which, at present, the necessary funds are not available.